Daß ich nicht mehr, mit sauerm Schweiß, / Zu sagen brauche, was ich nicht weiß; Daß ich erkenne, was die Welt / Im Innersten zusammenhält.

I'm getting there. And the more I learn, the more I am convinced that by understanding economics I actually get a better understanding of the world. I already spent a long time studying for my two 4-hour-exams on wednesday and thursday. It actually feels quite good to have study as my first and only priority.

And even though thinking like an economist is a weird thing for a social scientist like me, I can see progress. Still these models are quite weird sometimes. Where I would always be looking for other variables which might influence what is going on, right now I am to assume that only the factors I am looking at have an effect. Validity and generalizability...go to hell! Luckily I have a lot of people around me who are used to the economic way of thinking to get inspiration from.

Doing sample questions for my microeconomics exam today I had a basic idea what was going on and I knew where to look for the answers...now I only have to get all the stuff into my head. Unfortunately the way of answering exam questions for my courses here differ substantially from the way I am used to do it: We are supposed to answer comprehensively, basically writing down everything we know related to the subject, of course in a prioritized order. And we have ten minutes per question. I am not sure I can do that, but I will try. And I will try very hard.
So I will probably spend the next days without any of the trivial pleasures which I have enjoyed so much in the past weeks and just focus. Which is a pity because there is so much more I want to do here, so many people I want to talk to...but these opportunities will return I hope. Retaking these exams...not an option. Just passing and not trying to do my best...not an option. I am really glad to experience this striving for perfection, I almost thought I lost it during the last year. I have to find out how Danish grades transfer to Dutch grades. In the Danish system grades range from 12 to -3, but it's not equal steps from one end of the scale to the other. And then putting that next to the Dutch scale from 1 to 10 where 10 is something you normally never get...maybe I can leave that to someone else.

In between all the studymania I had another visitor from friday night to sunday afternoon. Mariya, my Russian friend who was an AIESEC trainee in Enschede for the last year and now works in Finland came over for the weekend. Needless to say we had a lot of fun, took another Canal Tour, we walked the city, went shopping, did a Ghost Tour of Copenhagen, partied, visited Christiania again and shared funny memories. Especially comparing her visit with Helen's is something very interesting. Having a really long-term friend and former roommate from your hometown over or a close, but more recent friend from a totally different culture makes very interesting contrasts in what you do and what you talk about. I wouldn't want to miss any of it!

Right now it's time to further work on my profound understanding of what holds the world together and makes it go round, so I can show it on wednesday and thursday.

All my new shoes

Aren't they pretty? I figured, as a girl in Copenhagen it's essential to have different shoes in different colours so they always match what else I am wearing. Of course I have matching bracelets and earrings to each of them. How more princessy can it become? I don't think much more, but compared to the last four years living in Copenhagen is a healthy shock for me. Remembering those funny moments living in Enschede, dressed up and rouged on a normal day and always being asked: "Do you have a party later?". Still, Copenhagen is not the other way round, as I first expected it. The majority of people here is well-dressed (even if they're pregnant), but then well-dressed is of course subjective. Still, they look as if they care about how they look and that manifests itself in different ways. The surprising thing is that the different peer groups don't have a common dresscode. This was illustrated very well during the huge garden party some weeks ago, but I come across it again every day: guys in suits hang out with hippies, they are joined by gangsters and eventually a high-heeled girl with expensive sunglasses walks by and joins the crowd. Very different from everything I've known before, where through your dress you also express the kind of group you belong to, but probably this is the environment in which people can truly develop their own style. I wonder what this will do to me. I already discovered that wearing 3/4 leggings under a skirt is the best invention ever. I can sit on the floor, go by bike, it's not as cold when it's cold and not as warm when it's warm. Perfect. The second day Helen was here she bought leggings too.

As she was in Copenhagen a major part of our programme was shopping, what we did on saturday. We didn't end up buying a lot of stuff but we got nice inspirations. Saturday night we went out in Norrebro, to Rust, which is a cool place where we had almost too much fun dancing, as nobody knew us there (see the pictures) and yesterday we visited the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, north of Copenhagen at the coast. Apart from the artworks it's a really nice place to hang out, it has a park with seaview.

Today Helen left at 11.42 and I'm alone again, after cleaning the apartment I will now enjoy the quiet time and study. I hope I can use the time until Mariya arrives on friday to get a lot of things done. I also have to, with only a week and two days to go until the exams. The time is now!!!

Christinania

On wednesday my visitor arrived: Helen came from Germany! So I took her to class to admire our professor, on a canal tour, all around town, I fed her Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream and of course we went out on thursday night to Kulorbar, again :P. We were supposed to have a tour of Christiania on friday at 9.30, but of course we got home somewhere around 5 and decided to explore it ourselves in the afternoon, after some chillout-time on the beach. Luckily Helen brought beachweather.

After lying on the beach for a while and swimming in the sea (cold, jellyfish, stony ground and tons of seaweed, but still a nice experience) we went to Christiania. It's one of the things you have to visit in Copenhagen and I haven't been there yet, so it was about time.

Christiania was founded in 1971 by some hippies who occupied empty military barracks and proclaimed their own free state, right in the middle of Copenhagen. They have their own post, legislation and people live there happily ever after. They really do. Of course some of Christiania's inhabitants have jobs in what I like to call " the real world", but others work there in the shops, the post office, the pubs, some are artists and some just hang out, smoke weed and drink beer all day. Unfortunately Helen and I got scared by all the "No Photos" signs, so we didn't take a lot of pictures. I found a youtube movie which gives you a good impression of what's going on there:



Even though I'm not really a fan of the way of life the people there, the place has a very special atmosphere and it was fun to be there. The Danish government is thinking about shutting it down for years, but they never actually did that. Sometimes the police goes there and arrests some people, probably for drug trade and abuse, because in Christiania, on a street called Pusher Street there are guys standing with small tables and selling pot. Which is of course illegal in the rest of Denmark. And if I was a politician I would not be too happy with a bunch of hippies occupying some part of my country and breaking my laws there. Still, I am wondering why they let that happen in the first place.

But maybe I can learn from the people over there, in case I ever want my own state. And Denmark seems to be a good starting place :D.

back to student life

As the doctor told me: walk as less as possible and cool my ankle, I spent saturday afternoon on the couch with Ally and Ben & Jerry's. This started boring me around 9 pm, so I decided to go out anyways. I put on my new shoes and my new shirt and went with my friends from Aboulevard to Vesterbro, which is another trendy district of Copenhagen. Apparently the places we normally go out are reserved for tourists and people from suburbia, and we were about to get the real Copenhagen Experience. And we got it...walking through the meat-packing district, where at first it seemed there was nobody, we first went to a really cool bar called Jolene, only Danish people there and all dressed in their weird fancy Scandinavian way. The bar was fun and the music was nice, but we decided to move on afterwards to another thing where we had used the bathroom before. I call it "thing", because I don't know any other description that fits it. Some weird underground club thingy, the entrance "hall" and the first room we went through to the actual dancefloor party room were lighted by neon lights, there were tabletop football tables and all that made the atmosphere really strange...especially because from brightly lit hallways we entered the partyroom which was only lit by some candles. The walls were decorated with huge letters (where the candles stood upon), drawers and cupboard doors and the furniture around looked like from bulky waste. Still, I liked the music and the atmosphere, though the fact that they served free pitchers of iced water and people drank directly from the pitchers made me suspicious. Just look at the pictures to see what I tried to describe...

On sunday I went to visit Roskilde, the former medieval capital of Denmark which is located 25 minutes left of Copenhagen at the Fjord. I visited the viking museum where they have rests of real viking ships they found in the Fjord. The ships themself are not that interesting, but again I was amazed of the Danish ability to build relaxed museums. You just walk around and information comes towards you in some weird kind of way. I normally get bored pretty fast, but the museums don't bore me. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I could dress like a viking and walk on a viking ship...

After the viking museum I visited the Cathedral, which is the graveplace of all the royals of Denmark. It is impressive, though it looks bigger from the outside than it actually is. Still, all the chapels of the different monarchs are really interesting, they're all different. The newest ones are the most boring...so I decided there is no point in being a real princess anymore nowadays. After having a pizza we went out in Norrebro at night and then weekend was over. And as I managed to visit only half of my classes last week this week it was time to go to all of them. And it is also time to start studying for my exams, which I really did. Combined with going out at night this leads to my days looking like this: getting up, go to class, have lunch, sleep,visit museum/something else interesing, study, dinner, study, going out, sleep, getting up...maybe this is not healthy in the long run but for the moment it works perfectly. Tonight I will go and get Coniurata from the station who is visiting me this weekend, so maybe I have to adapt my rhythm back. Still, for now it's study time!!!

The Danish Health Care System

After I have been benefiting from the Education System of Denmark for three weeks now, it was yet time for me to explore another aspect of the Danish welfare state: the Health Care.

The occasion was, that during partying, dancing and jumping around thursday night I twisted my ankle. For the fourth time during the last two years. Of course it's huge and also hurts and hurts even more when I walk, so I decided that this time it might be time to see a doctor. And as a summer student with enough free time to do so, I went to Frederiksberg hospital this morning.
I was welcomed by a friendly nurse, who of course spoke perfect English to me. After writing down my name and my birthday and what happened to me, by the way they didn't seem to care about my health insurance, they never asked for that, she offered me painkillers. I declined, it was not that bad. Still, I appreciated the gesture. I had to wait for a short while, nothing compared to the whiles you have to wait in a German hospital, but maybe traffic is not that high on a saturday morning. Then the doctor came to see me, touched my foot here and there and said I would have to go to get an X-ray. She leaves, I put on my shoes to go to the X-ray when a male nurse (is there a name for it - like Krankenbruder?) enters the room. I got up to go to X-ray with him, but he told me to sit down, he would weel me there. So he puts up two little fences on the sides of the bed so I wouldn't fall and starts wheeling me through the hospital. No need to say I felt like a princess. I got X-rays, which was quite painful and then I was wheeled back. After a little longer while the doctor came and told me that for now nothing was wrong, but there was a concerning detail on the X-ray, which looked like in an earlier accident some small part of the bone was split off and it's there in a weird position. So I finally got to know where this cracking sound on the Mexican stairs came from. The doctor told me to have it checked when I get home. This raises the interesting question where that is supposed to be. In the end a nurse wearing orange crogs (can it be worse) made me a tape and I was offered crutches, which I also declined and then I could leave.

Sleeping Beauty

The major thing I have been doing the last days, apart from school and reading is sleeping. I don't know why I am so tired, maybe the last year is finally catching up with me. But it's okay, I have time for that right now. On tuesday I even didn't go to class, because Sleeping Me convinced me it would not be that bad not to go. Yesterday there was no class, so I could be sleeping beauty as much I wanted. Today then there was class again and I forgot to put an alarm clock (I suspect sleeping me of doing that unconciously), so I got up half an hour late. It seriously becomes about time that damn prince comes along to prevent me from sleeping further.

In between sleeping I made and ate sushi on monday night, also check the pictures because I was really good at it and I can't wait to try different versions. On tuesday I finally went to explore Norrebro, the part of the city I am living in. It is the momentary "In"-district of Copenhagen, but apart from the cemetery and the main street around my bus stops I always neglected it because I was doing other stuff elsewhere. But, since tuesday I know how much there's to do there, it's also a little bit less expensive than Central Copenhagen (not much unfortunately) and there are tons of nice places. the most apparent thing about Norrebro is it's cultural diversity. There are so many different food places, a lot of Middle Eastern shops, and sooooooo many different people. It's not one of the safest places at night compared to the Central Area but it's also way more exciting. I still have the whole area around Norrebro station left to explore and I am really looking forward to it. I will take my camera.

Yesterday I went to visit the Thorvaldsen Museum. As on wednesdays all museums are free in Copenhagen. I never heard of him before, but I definitely missed something. He lived from 1770-1844 and apparently was THE sculptor of his time. The museum displays models of his projects he made for public places, e.g. the grave monument of Pius VII which stands in St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, sculptures of Schiller and Gutenberg and also impressive equestrian sculptures. Apart from famous persons he also pictured a lot of mythological scenes in his work and there's one hall where Jesus and all his disciples stand. Quite impressive, check the pictures.
Yesterday night the Summer students had a BBQ, where I had a lot of fun and right now I am looking towards another weekend, starting with a visit to Tivoli tonight, then the obligatory visit to Kulorbar on thursday evening and I'll see what the rest holds for me. The minor inconvenience about the weekend is that our professor postponed wednesday's class to friday, soI will have to drag myself there tomorrow at 9.

Fairytale Money

The Danish have really cute money. I like it a lot, it has hearts and crowns on it. Of course I have long seen through that this is only a trick from the Danish government to make people happier in the interaction with this money and to ensure that spending it does not hurt that much.

In Denmark and specifically in Copenhagen people spend a lot of money, so they better have a positive feeling every time they hand it over to another person at a shop. The quality of life here clearly has its price, as we noticed some girls, especially during nightlife, can't even afford pants anymore. So I try not to spend too much money, because I'd like to keep my pants. Still, this is quite hard, especially because being a summer student I don't want to sit at home all the time. And going out always involves spending money somehow. Basically everything is more expensive here than it is in the rest of Europe (excluding Scandinavia and other European capitals), with some exceptions: Haägen Dasz and Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream and Martini. Probably also other stuff, but I haven't noticed that yet. It's not that these things are cheap, but they are just as expensive as they are in Germany or in The Netherlands. So, as I learned somewhere in my Summer Courses, my opportunity cost of buying Ben & Jerry's is lower in Denmark than it is back home, because I can buy less stuff for the money that I spend on it. Logical conclusion is: If you buy Ice-Cream, buy that-one. Especially because it's very tasty and sometimes has Chocolate Animals in it. Too bad these things work on girls like me.

Which brings me directly to my next concern. I learned a lot of good things in my courses until now (hehe including the opportunity cost thingy), but I was completely flabbergasted when I read a chapter in my book on Consumer Behaviour (I was sick during that class, too bad, but it will be revised tomorrow). According to my book and apparently this is the economic opinion on the matter, consumers act according to curves, one curve shows the opportunities they have to spend their budget on different products, another curve shows the utility value they get from buying the products and the point where these products meet indicates what they buy.

My dear Economists: IT IS NOT THAT SIMPLE. Of course it is convenient to assume that, but it's just not the case. I can give you some nice books on the subject so you know what you're really getting yourself into. Still I am happy I got to know this perspective, it will probably be very useful to me in the future.

Apart from studying I haven't done many spectacular things. I rediscovered my housewife-skills cooking for Elise and Mirna, we watched The Devil's Advocate together (now I have to watch a lot of Ally to restore my romantic view of the life of a lawyer) and today I went to the beach. It was really nice, just a bit cold when the sun was covered by clouds. I haven't really been out this weekend, still not fully recovered from my flu, so I am very relaxed for next week's classes.

Oh and the AIESECers among you might find this interesting: http://www.myaiesec.net/content/viewforum.do?contentid=10022145.

Missing AIESEC

I felt weird the last two days and I didn't know what was bothering me, but I finally realized. Today it's three weeks ago I said goodbye to the last AIESECer I saw in person. And after I read a lot of blogs yesterday, the majority of course of some AIESECers working somewhere in the organization or doing internships, I realized how much I miss them.

The one thing is missing people as persons, which I discovered before, there are just not enough people around to have meaningful conversations with and that is alright, that's what Skype was invented for and luckily there are also a few here. But what hit me yesterday was that I was missing the AIESEC spirit. How fluffy is that.

But considering that throughout the whole last year I was always surrounded by people sharing the same values, ideals and vision (some more than others), it's not that difficult to understand. And only now I realize how important it is for me to be a part of that. And how hanging out in Copenhagen, with the highest common goal of a group to find a cheap place to drink and myself only caring about what to wear the next days annoys me more and more. Of course I won't change the group's vision here from "finding a place to party" to "peace and the fulfilment of humankinds potential", but I will definitely start with myself and try to have some more spirit in me. My courses here for example are an excellent tool to understand society and how the world works, which is an important prerequisite to impacting it in some way. So apart from my academic ambition, I also have another good reason to study :D. And I will use all the different people and cultures surrounding me here to find out what drives them and enhance my intercultural understanding. And of course prepare for my CEED, which is only a month away. I am so looking forward to start doing AIESECwork again, especially because to start off I am going to the National OGX Meeting of AIESEC in Canada, finally, after 5 months, another congress for me.

All these thoughts show me that I made the right decision not to leave the organization yetand that it will probably might take some time until I will. There's just too much out there.

Dontdoubtchristina.com

Finally I fulfilled myself a long-dreamt-dream. I got my first own real domain. The blogspot-thingy is nice, but this is way better.
And I finally made my point. Of course there's a story behind this. Somewhere in january, I was giving a lot of good advice and sharing my knowledge with some people who apparently couldn't really appreciate it. They double-checked and doubted everything I said, even when I named various trustworthy sources where I got that knowledge from. I eventually got sick of it and only talked to the people who knew I was right and together with them I decided we would have to make a petition "Don't doubt Christina!!!" I am perfectly aware that I am not always talking sincere and that a lot of what I am saying is crazy and not compatible with reality, BUT: a lot of it also is. I have read a lot of stuff in my life and listened to a lot of people and if I claim I'm right, most of the times I am. If it's important and I am not sure about what I say, then I tend to warn people: I think this is the way it is, but I am not sure.
In a weird mood of saying everything in domain-terms (inspired by watkunjewel.nl) the petition eventually turned into dontdoubtchristina.com. And that's where we are today.
So whereever you are, if you can't remember the blogspot-thingy, just remember: dontdoubtchristina.com. And some people should extend this knowledge to other situations in life, too :D

Sick :(

Maybe in the end all the partying was too much. I was tired on monday morning and couldn't really focus in class (though I think more people had that problem) and my throat started hurting. Nevertheless, I thought it was time for Pilates and that really knocked me out. I dragged myself home and went to sleep and that is basically what I was doing the last two days, interrupted by some Ally-watching and reading. Today I couldn't stand being at home anymore and went to school (of course not to class, I was too tired for that :P) to meet my friends for lunch and tonight we had a movie night organized by ISUP. Although I normally don't get energy from people, I really needed it this time. After lunch I sat with Elise in Frederiksberg Shopping Mall for two hours, observing people, counting pregnant women and checking out people's shoes. I had the time of my life, as you can probably imagine.

The movie we saw was called "After the wedding", a Danish movie, luckily with English subtitles. My Danish...well it probably improved after tonight. I liked the movie, it did not bore me (very good thing for a movie) and it was, to describe it in one word, sincere. The camera shots often were as if somebody would just sit next to the people in reality and film them. No artificial lights, not too much make-up, no dramatic music where it doesn't belong. And a good story. That's how it should be. And the main character is the same as the evil guy in Casino Royale. He has a very nice back, and that should not be underestimated nowadays.

After the film I was very reasonable and did not follow the others to a bar. I will stay home and cure my flu, so I hopefully can join them tomorrow for another visit at Kulorbar.

I have decided I will not put the naked picture on Internet. I've shown it to various people here and they all agreed it's not worth it. I will put the rest though, but I have to admit: even though I am forcing myself to take a lot of pictures, it will never become my biggest hobby. So there are a lot of moments which I didn't record, especially in partys. But other people do, so I refer you to my facebook page, where you can find them all.

Copenhagen Baby Boom

Something which also scares me about Copenhagen is the obvious fertility of the Danish people. Seriously, everywhere in public when I look around I can see at least two pregnant women and there are small children all over the place. In every bus I take there's at least one buggy...what the hell? 5 million people are not that much for a country as Denmark, so maybe they are trying to outnumber the Dutch and people are secretly rewarded for getting children or something. It is shocking, impressive or whatever, but Copenhagen seems to have some kind of babyboom. I have to ask Danish people where this comes from. Even in my macro course there is a pregnant girl. Though of course I am not a huge fan of children and still have serious doubts about having some one day, if I ever get children I want it to be here. There is so much mummy-stuff to buy, really beautiful clothes for pregnant women (not weird as the form 25% of the population) and a great diversity of buggys and carriages.

First week retrospective....

Sunday evening, after my first complete week in Copenhagen. What a time. I've seen so much, done so much, experienced so many new things and, of course: PARTIED SO MUCH. Whenever I thought I had been going crazy the last few months, it was just a warmup for being here. I went out every night since wednesday. Still, luckily I am trained and so I could get up most days without a headache and even go running this morning.

We have visited different bars and clubs throughout the last days, and my favourite until now is Kulorbar, the place we went thursday and I'm looking forward to go there again next week. For the rest I'm not sure I have to visit the places again, but I'll see where other people go and just follow them. And as the Italian says there's a Jazz Bar which does not play Jazz, it's definitely a place worth checking out, just because it seems crazy. You also wouldn't have a restaurant called Bella Italia serving Chinese food. But I am looking forward to some quiet nights of staying home or maybe visiting people, but not clubs.

Today I was looking at my stay here in a retrospective, I think my honeymoon phase is over. I was amazed by everything working so well and people speaking English everywhere. I start to take that as a given and observe more and more odd little Danish things, the worst story already known of course. Still I am having a great time and I don't think culture shock will hit me hard, as it wouldn't be the first one. I really miss my friends, it's so weird not having somebody around to share your random thoughts with. Most of the talks here are pretty superficial, party, shopping, boys, party, shopping, boys and the guys seem to be talking about girls only. It is really weird, Summer School is like being back in High School again: thinking hours about what to wear and what people will think of me. That's what happens if nobody has a time-filling occupation, we're just living from one partynight to the other. And there are many hours in between...Thank god from tomorrow on there are four days of class, so I can keep myself busy with more serious stuff. Luckily I also have some better friends who I actually have interesting conversations with, the one I am most happy with is my twin Elise. She's from Singapore (so we don't exactly look like twins :P) and we have both classes together and in most other occasions also end up together and have a really great time. Today we discovered we both love baking, so we will go and bake for the garden party on friday together.

The social program of ISUP today was a Canal Tour, we took a round trip on a boat on the canals of central Copenhagen. Was nice but not spectacular and for some reason made us very very tired. I am still tired and I have to make Guacamole, but I can't find lemon or lime juice. Maybe Stine has some hidden somewhere, I will ask her later.

Dawning Copenhagen

I just got home from going out yesterday, tonight, whenever...fact is that I have experienced some things I definitely have to share and as it's too late to call somebody I just have to write them.

But...start at the beginning. International Dinner was fun, even though it was without drinks and people weren't dressed properly, so Global Villages are definitely more fun. After that I went home because I had some cleaning to do here. I cleaned up the mess I made during the last two days, folded all my clothes and then went to Kulorbar, a nice place in central Copenhagen, difficult to find, but it serves free beer from 11 till 1, so I was amused enough. One remark: maybe you Germans and Dutch are celebrating smoke-free establishments for going out and yes it is a good thing that you can wear the stuff you wore the night before the next day...BUT only if you yourself wore enough deodorant and even then you can just hope the people around you do too...because as bad as smoke smells and as much cancer as it causes...the later it gets the more the pubs and bars here start smelling sweaty. And that is so disgusting!!!!

But I was not going to complain about that. I left from the bar to go home by bus, when I reached Norreport Station I realized the next bus would not leave for 45 minutes and I could as well walk home. So I started walking, took some pictures of the city and also myself (stupid old habit) when I meet two Danish guys, in their twenties and as far as I remember their faces relatively good-looking. They ask me if I take pictures (apparently) and where I'm from and what I'm doing in Copenhagen. Blabla. Then they ask if I want to take a picture of them. I say: Yes of course, why not. They drop their pants and tell me to take a picture of them and their Willys. I took the picture so I could leave without a discussion. I haven't looked at it yet.
Still I am asking myself: what the hell is wrong with these people...I could handle Peter, the Danish MCP making out with every available girl, I accepted people sunbathing topless in a graveyard, but this is DEFINITELY too much, even for me. I went to catholic girl's school, after all. So here I am, discussing with myself if I should put the picture on internet or not. You will see the result tomorrow. I am going to try to sleep now.

Denmark Day

Yesterday it was Denmark Day, at least for me. After celebrating with the Canadians I had to make up for it by doing Danish stuff. Because I didn't have class yesterday I went to the National Museum. Entry is free, the have Airconditioning and it was quite interesting. Also check the pictures I took there.
First I visited the section on prehistoric Denmark. The things I saw there are pretty much the same everywhere, people living in caves and hunting and later migrating and hunting and farming and then they show their tools...interesting about the Danish side of this was that they of course are always near the water somehow and they used that for their daily life, that added a dimension to what I've seen before. They also had quite some nice exponates, especially about the way people handled death here and how they were buried, they were put on some wooden thing and then stuffed into a sort of specially constructed house, by chemical procedures the bodies did not rot completely so they had the wodden things in the museum with skeletons on and some still had hair :P. Prehistoric Denmark was followed by Denmark in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, that was mostly Church stuff, Interiors, Saints...not very intersting.
Then there was Denmark from 1660 till today and that was the most interesting part. A lot of history, illustrated by all kinds of objects. I really liked it, it was easy to look at, not reading many stressfull signs and still I got a good impression of what happened to Denmark in the past.
I also visited the Intercultural Treasures Section, they had clothes and lots of other things from cultures all around the world. I took pictures of the most tremendous.
After the museum I had Danish pastry in my favourite graveyard for lunch (also very Danish) and then went home to make Kartoffelsalat for the International Dinner tonight (not very Danish).
In the evening the CBS people had arranged Danish folkdancing for us and despite the usual prejudices on folklore activities we had sooooo much fun. First some Danish group danced for us and then they instructed us...because I was dancing myself I don't have pictures, but I think I can get them from somebody else and I have pictures from before and after, so it should be alright. After the dancing we went out to the city centre and after getting lost on the way there I drank some Tuborg Beer (VERY DANISH). Unfortunately it is served in very large glasses, I didn't stay out late but still didn't feel too well this morning.
By now I have recovered and am almost ready for the next adventure: International Dinner at CBS, everybody is supposed to bring food which is special for his or her country. The idea may sound familiar to the AIESECers among you...only difference is: you can't bring drinks. That makes it a bit boring I guess, I remember the Global Village in Tunisia which was not that fun like other global villages due to the same reason. Also, because the summer programme mainly involves non-AIESECers, they don't do this very often so they're not that creative. I expect some Americans to buy Euroburgers at the Mac, most of the Germans will make Kartoffelsalat (so will I) and the rest will make pancakes and claim it's typical. I am very curious...also a new experience for me to stand at the German side of the table.

Canada Day

Today is Canada Day. Of course a very important day for me as a future Canadian and luckily there were more Canadians around to celebrate it. We did this by walking around together in the old part of Copenhagen, it was fun and I had a great time...but to keep things simple I should start where I left the last time...

On sunday afternoon the ISUP had organized a city race of Copenhagen. We had to visit important sites at the historic center, answer questions and take pictures of important sites. This way I didn't only get to know more about the city and the sites here, but I also met more people studying with me and got to know them a bit better. We visited Amalienborg, the marble church, the parliament, another church and in the end we climbed the "round tower", an observatory in the center of the city. It does not have real stairs, but a spiral ramp so the king could ride to the top on his horse and didn't have to walk all the way up. I understand why he did that, but walking the ramp was quite tiring. Still the view rewarded it. And our efforts in the race were also rewarded...we won it and got a free drink afterwards. After the race I put on my German flag and went to the "Biergarten" to watch the final match of the European Football Championship. Of course we all know the result, so after the match I put my flag back into my handbag and forgot about the whole thing. I went home soon after because I thought I had class the next morning.

When I reached CBS I found out I didn't have class because for some reason the professor was not there, so instead I got a library card and made an appointment at the hairdresser and did some groceries...also very important stuff. After that I headed home, watched Ally McBeal and slept the rest of the day. I wanted to go swimming, but the pool close to my house was closed for holidays. Today I had class, I have a Danish professor with a funny accent. And for me as a Behavioural Scientist the economic perspective I am taught here really has an added value. So I managed to listen for three hours without doing other stuff and even studied the book afterwards. I also went to the hairdresser, as that was really necessary to be able to keep up with all the fancy Copenhagians :). I spent the afternoon at the park, which is actually a graveyard, sunbathing and reading. Summer has finally arrived in Denmark. The park/graveyard is a really cool place, in the middle of the city it's a quiet green spot, peaceful and the scattered tombstones give it a really special atmosphere. It sounds a bit odd to spend so much time in a graveyard, but people also go running there and the graves are not all around, there also is a newer part where you're not supposed to be if you're not mourning. I'll put pictures of it. As the weather stays nice I will for sure go there again.

Tonight I had my Canada day celebration and now it's time to sleep again. It's incredible how much I have slept since I've been here, but it was about time I guess. Tomorrow again I don't have class, because the lectures of Macroeconomics and Microeconomics are the same during the first week and I don't have to listen to the same stuff twice. I will go the the National Museum instead. To learn more about the Danish...