This weekend I went to Stockholm with my friend Amy from DIS.
The weekend started out pretty crazy, Amy and I accidentally booked the wrong flight, I guess that is what happens when you are annoyed and want to just book the stupid flight! We meant to book an 8:35 am flight friday morning, but booked a 7:00 am flight instead. No problem you'd think, except public transit doesn't run extremely early. So me and Amy got up at 3:30 and my host dad was nice enough to get up ridiculously early, like 4:30, so he could drive us to the Kokkedal train station. We caught a 5:02 train towards the airport and arrived a little before 6, we busted our butts to check-in, and we got through everything in time!
Our flight was not even half full! I felt soo unsustainable I wanted to cry :[ We got to Stockholm and decided to walk from the central station to our hostel, according to some lunatic online it was only like twenty minutes away. Wrong...it was about a 40 minute walk. With a suitcase it wasn't so fun, and it was freezing, but that walk was a wonderful way to see the city! We eventually found out way to the hostel and stored the suitcase and decided to take off and explore! First stop...buying a train pass! We were not going to do that walk everyday lol, we would be doing enough walking around the city!
We got back into the center of the city and just started wandering, wherever the cold wind blew us lol. We found a kebab place for lunch...mmmmmm :] I'm starting to realize that half of my enjoyment of traveling is eating different foods :] We went over to the Old City and walked through their tiny streets, saw the royal palace and went on a hunt for a Dala Horse for Amy. We headed back to the central station area to do some more wandering in the tourist shopping district...I love me some good shopping :] I didn't buy anything though, just stared at what I couldn't afford lol. We walked along the waterfront and got completely lost, it was totally worth it though because we saw the most beautiful sunset on the face of the planet! For dinner we went to a texmex place, man have I been missing burritos :] We took the train back to the hostel, we were exhausted from being up since 3:30!
Hostel did not equal a good place to relax :[ We were sharing a room with 3 spanish girls and 3 russian/not really sure where they were from girls. The common room was full of people until the wee hours of the morning, and guess where our room was? Basically in the common room, you had to walk into the common room to get to our door. So trying to sleep involved listening to a thousand different conversations in a thousand different languages! Eventually I got to sleep but woke up a lot because it was HOT! My bed was against the heater so it felt like I was in a fire, I decided to turn it down the next night...sorry girls :]
The next day we got up while all the other girls were sleeping, I guess when you stay up till 3 am you don't want to get up at 9 lol. We took off to book a winter boat tour around the canals in Stockholm...EXPENSIVE! Like 25 dollars, I guess its not that bad, but I'm a poor college student so basically I wanted to cry when I handed over the money lol. The tour was great though, we got to sit and be warm, the most important part lol since it snowed the day before! We saw some pretty islands and heard some local history of Stockholm, it was pretty great! After the boat tour we found some lunch and then headed to the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a great battle ship sailing out of Stockholm in 1628, it was quite magnificent, but sank within half an hour of its maiden voyage, can you say embarrassment! They recovered the ship in the 1960s and it was actually mostly intact, the water in Stockholm is good for preserving wood apparently. They fixed up the ship and did some stuff to it so that it would last and then they put it on display in the museum. This ship was HUGE! It was so amazing to see, it is so old and sat on the bottom of a canal for over 300 years and it is still so beautiful. We were so exhausted that at one point we just sat and stared at the ship for like twenty minutes lol. We left the museum and decided to take the train to Sodermalm, one of the islands of Stockholm, to walk around. We walked along the water for a bit and went into a photography museum, we didn't see any exhibitions, it was sooo expensive! Sodermalm was also great to see the sunset from, open view of the clear sky and the shades of pink and orange were reflecting of the building windows, spectacular :] We went back to the train and took the train farther into the middle of the island. We walked around some more and found a grocery store, so we bought some snackage for the plane trip the next day :] We went into this local mall place and found a pizzeria....PIZZA!! It made me soo happy :] It was nice to be at a local place, it made me feel less like a tourist! Then we went to a burger king and got some ice cream and talked, they turned of the lights for earth hour :]]]]]]]]]] I was just a little happy!
We headed back to the hostel to attempt to get some sleep, the possibly russian group had left but the spanish girls were still there, but they were gettin' all dolled up to go out, so they left pretty soon after we got there. It was day light savings the next day so we reset our cell phones, missing our plane would not be fun! We hit the sack around midnight, the spanish girls came back around 4:30 and woke me up, so I was slightly grumpy the next morning lol. We packed up around 10:15 and then checked out of the hostel, we took the train to the central station to store the suitcase in some luggage lockers so we could go explore some more. Who woulda thought that dealing with luggage lockers were so difficult lol, but we managed and took off again to see the Stockholm City Hall.
We took a guided tour of City Hall, it was spectacular, the building was very grand and inside was even nicer! We saw a grand meeting room, where they host a big ball for the Nobel Prize winners. We also saw the "gold room", it had scenes on the wall made of gold tiles. The portrayal of the queen was actually really ugly lol, she looked like medusa. When the mural was made the citizens of stockholm actually wanted to tear down the wall because they thought the queen looked so UGLY! They kept the wall, which was pretty smart because now it is quite the tourist attraction! After the tour we walked around the city hall building and took pictures with the Dala Horse statue and looked at the frozen water, it is finally starting to warm up in Copenhagen so I was quite sad that it was so freezing in Stockholm still.
We went back to Old City to find the Ben and Jerry's shop that we saw the other day :] We ate some ice cream and were very happy! Our time in Stockholm was coming to an end so we headed back to central station to get the suitcase and took the Arlanda Express to get back to the airport. We got there two hours early and were extremely bored! It took all of like twenty minutes to check in and get through security and there was not adequate seating for everyone at our gate! Eventually we found some seats and ate some cookies while reading and practicing our Danish!
Our flight back was basically harmless, though when we were taxiing to the runway we saw the remnants of an old plane that looked like it had crashed and caught fire, not exactly what you want to see when you take off! Back in Copenhagen we were! We took the train back to Birkerod station and more fun began! We had just missed the bus and it was like 25 minutes to the next one, so we got on a different route that I had taken once before and asked the bus driver for help, he said he would tell us when to get off. It was going according to plan and then the bus driver told us to get off, he had already driven away when I realized he was WRONG! We were definitely not at the right stop. We had no idea what to do or where we were so we decided to just walk back the way we came, unfortunately while we were walking the few kilometers back to Birkerod station the wheel on the suitcase I borrowed from my host family started to break! I am just a mishap magnet when it comes to travel lol, but we eventually got back to my place so Amy could get her stuff out of my suitcase, then she headed home to relax! I made myself some Top Ramen and a bowl of cereal for dinner and dug into my homework!
Back to classes I went! I got my grade back from my oral midterm in Danish....A- baby....ohhhh yeah :]] I am also working on a debate for my human trafficking class about victims of trafficking seeking asylum in other countries, it is going to be very interesting! Today I didn't have any field studies so I slept in...9:30! And then leisurely ate some breakfast, watched a little tv on my computer and did some homework. Then I went to Sierra's house to chit chat and eat :]] We had avocado and mozzarella with oil and vinegar, then some top ramen and then we made banana bread! After the delicious afternoon we went and jumped on the trampoline in the backyard and then I left so we could be productive on homework! That didn't last long lol :] Now i am clearly writing this blog and facebook chatting with my lovely roomie Kristen :]
Farvel!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Crunchy times :]
Sorry all but this is going to be a long post! I just have too many exciting things to tell you about, and it is just impossible to condense, so lets get started!
Well you heard about my fun arrival day in England, don't worry the trip was exponentially better from there :]
London with Mom:
My mom, and two ladies from Boeing also working in Bristol, and I took the train into London, beautiful scenery I can't even describe it! We had a few problems getting to our hotel, which was outside of downtown London, because they are working on some of the tube lines. We spent like half and hour trying to figure out what to do and eventually we just walked a mile or so to the hotel, which was pretty nice if you ask me. Up to the rooms we went, freshed ourselves up and headed to downtown London. First stop.....Hard Rock Cafe :] We did a bit of shopping, mom got me a HRC London sweatshirt :] and then had a late lunch, very late lol like 3 pm late! After delicious food and music time we did the sights!
We saw the Welllington Arch, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament, walked along the Thames, then took a boat trip down the Thames to the London Bridge. The London Bridge is actually not impressive at all! Its only cool in the old nursery song. The really spectacular bridge in London is the Tower Bridge, that takes you to the Tower of London. The Tower Bridge is so beautiful at night, with the glow from the river walk lights it really looks grand :] After crossing the bridge we wandered around the Tower of London, which was closed, and found a...Starbucks :] Yay!!!!!! So we had a nice leisurely sit down and drank some coffee. After our yummi coffe we thought we would walk along the Thames back to Big Ben...boy did we underestimate that distance! After probably 45 minutes of walking mom and I decided we couldn't take anymore! So we told her friends that we were going to catch the underground and set off on our journey to the hotel. We ate some dinner at like 10:30 pm, i don't think I have ever eaten that late before and i'm not the biggest fan lol. The next day her friends caught an early train back to Bristol, but mom and I did some more exploring! I packed up all my stuff and we traveled into London to store my stuff at the hotel I would stay in that night and set off for the London Eye!
Oh the London Eye, how fantastic a ferris wheel :] It was amazing to see the city from hundreds meters up, the view of the river and Big Ben was spectacular. I think if I had the option I could just rent live in one of those capsules and go round and round all day and night. We found a cheap chinese buffet for lunch, I just can't seem to stay away from chinese food lol :] More wandering around the city and we found our way back to my hotel. Mom came with me to check into my hotel, and then we had to say our goodbyes. I didn't realize until she was ready to leave that I was a little homesick for the people I love, not so much the place but the people who are around me everyday. I realize now how hard it can be to be thousands of miles away from friends and family.
Class Study Tour in London:
Monday morning I met up with my core class at a place called Transport for London. We had our first academic visit there, which I enjoyed alot! We learned all about London's public transit and the congestion charge and low emission zone. I learned quite a bit and am excited to see if any american cities can take note and implement some of their ideas. After the visit we went to the hotel and to lunch, then the Tower of London. We had the rest of the night as free time, so 12 of us set off back to the hotel, we managed the underground but got lost trying to get to the hotel from the station, it took almost an extra hour lol. I've come to realize that we are pretty directionally challenged when dropped into a new place! We saw the theater production of The Lion King, which was pretty fantastic, the British accents were a little strange though lol. I feel like the rest of London was kind of a blur to me, I was just too excited waiting to get to Devon, I really needed to be in the country side!
Study Tour in Devon:
We left London from Paddington Station and a three hour train ride later we were in Totnes! The train trip was beautiful, we went past an estuary and I sat in awe as we rolled by. We arrived in Totnes and met Hal, who works for Transition Town Totnes as a tour guide and workshop leader. He took us to where we were going to stay, Sharpam Estate, which was probably the most beautiful place i've ever been :] Sharpam Estate was like a mansion, the building is extremely old and was bombed in WWI, so they had to fix some of the bricks on the front of the mansion. The mansion is on a hill top surrounded by rolling hills and overlooking the dart River. Picture a postcard of the england countryside...got it? Well this view was better than that! The estate has their own dairy farm, a vineyard, some sheep and a small wool mill. When we arrived I stood outside and had to make sure that it was real, could I really be that lucky? Oh yes!! We had dinner, which was completely vegetarian and mostly local and organic, I was in food heaven! After dinner we had an evening academic session with Hal, he is super funny! Now that the academic junk was out of the way, Hal took us to a local bar to see another part of the town. It was a cool little local place with local and organic beers. We all had a good time just relaxing and hanging out, we learned a lot about our teacher, she used to live in Devon many years ago.
The next day we had more academic sessions but we also did some walking and touring, which was great! We took a small tour of Totnes, saw some sustainability, or resilience as Hal calls it, in action. After that we went to a woman named Lou's house to learn about the Transition Streets project they do. Transition Streets is a program where neighborhoods get together to promote sustainability amongst their community. Its actually an intense program with a handbook and professional workshops. Lou is one of the leaders in the program, so she had a lot of interesting stuff to tell us! Next we saw some smaller projects in action, we went to this small farm which is run by a school program, and met with a guy who grows organic mushrooms in an old shipping container, a little strange I know but he was a funny guy! Last we took off up a hillside to see an old farm and this beautiful place called Dartington Hall. Now i have to admit I don't really remember why Dartington Hall is significant, because I was paying to much attention to the spectacular view I had and not enough to what Hal was saying....oops :]
After all the exploring and learning we headed for a local pub called Albert Einsteins to meet with some more employees of Transition Town Totnes so we could ask questions and what not. After that we had some free time, so of course we went exploring more, found an old church and walked along the wall for a bit before setting off to find some food. A group of 8 or so of us decided on an asian restaurant, which was delicious :] It was fun to just eat food and hang out, we did have a mishap with my friends dinner, she is vegan so she ordered vegetarian pad thai without any egg...all good and fine until her food comes out, she starts to eat it and it tastes funny. Another girl from our class had a bite of it and sure enough it was chicken pad thai, so we got a lady over to the table and said this pad thai has chicken, to which she responds "not chicken, vegetarian" and my friend holds up her fork and says "then whats this?" and then the woman was apologetic lol. Allison got some new food, but felt a little sick afterwards from eating that little bit of chicken. After dinner we met up with the big group again and headed back to the Albert Einstein Pub again to relax, we played some old music on the juke box and listened to the bar owner crack jokes for awhile. Hal came to pick us up in the bus and we headed back to Sharpham to get some well earned sleep :]
The next day was wonderful! We started off the morning with a short walk around Sharpham Estate and then set off to explore Dartmoor National Park. Man what I would do to live in Devon! Dartmoor was spectacular, awful in the actual meaning of the word, I was full of awe. Everywhere you looked there were hills and mountains and rocks and sheep and cows. I felt like I was in a movie, when the close up on people walking along some grass lands and then the camera zooms out and you see that they are walking on this vast hill top, that was basically what we were doing! We walked towards a cliff side and then stopped for a quick academic session, we learned about Gaia Theory, but more importantly we sat on these magnificent rocks and watched the river below us shimmer in the sunlight. I don't know if I've ever felt so invigorated, I felt so lucky to have the opportunity to look out over this amazing place, I couldn't have asked for anything better. We left Dartmoor and set off for Riverford Organic Farm, where we would be eating lunch, they have a field kitchen which is basically a restaurant that serves you the best organic and local food in the entire world, or at least thats what it seemed like to me :] I mean I love my grandma's cooking, but this was like grandma's home cooking on organic steroids! After we were stuffed full, and I mean that literally I think we were almost leaking pureed parsnips lol, Hal made us walk up a hill so we could see the whole farm. This task essentially turned into us walking up said hill and then literally collapsing in the grass because the sunshine was so fantastic and we were just so full!
We went back to Sharpham for another academic session, but this time we met outside on the bank of the river, it was probably the best "class" i've ever had to go to lol. We did some talking and then we had to have a solo assignment, we all had to take 20 minutes and go somewhere nearby to sit and sense nature and be silent, we were supposed to just slow down and really notice and feel where we were. Basically the best assignment ever :] I went walking along the river and took my time to notice what was around me, I listened to the birds sing and listened as my footsteps crunched on the soil, leaves and branches. Nothing had called to me yet so I just kept walking. Eventually I found a giant fallen tree that was in the river bed, it was low tide don't worry I didn't go swimming lol. So I climbed out on it and sat, I just sat there and watched the water flow and listen to the birds, I watched the birds swoop into the river and fight with the other birds, I felt the bark around me and looked at the old spider webs down the tree trunk. I closed my eyes and smelled the river water and felt the wind on my face and listed to the popping sound of the water and the sand. I think I could have sat there for hours, listening to the birds and feeling the wind around me, with that aroma of fresh water and trees. I honestly felt like Pocahontas when she sings Color of the Wind, I didn't hear any wolves crying to the moon but I felt alive and like I was a part of that place, I felt like the tree I was sitting on somehow could feel me too, it know that I was there taking in the feel and smell of the bark. I was a little sad to leave my tree when Hal called for us to come back, but I think it will remember that I was there, I know I can never forget my twenty minutes in that spot.
We shared our thoughts and then said goodbye to one of the facilitators that was helping Hal, Inez, because she had to go home to her son. We had an hour of free time before dinner so Allison and I went walking along the river bank, it was nice to see another part of the river. Then we headed for the house, but got distracted on the way up by the most adorable sheep! We went inside the pen with them and spent some quality time with their fluffy little selves. When we went to leave, they ran after us, it was so cute :] Then as we walked on towards the house we had a conversation with them through "baaaaaaaaahhhhhs". Literally! I would "baaaahhhh" and they would respond to me and that went on until we reached the front door of the house. I can communicate with sheep, yes!! We went inside for dinner and met the owner Sharpham Estate, he told us a bit of the history and asked if we were enjoying ourselves, there was a resounding "YES!" to that questions :] We had our last night session, and went upstairs to start packing up our stuff, we had to leave the next morning at 8:45 :[[
All good things must come to an end, it sucks! We got ready to leave and you could feel the heartbreak that was happening to everyone in my class, we really didn't want to leave. You could see it in our faces and hear it in our voices, we couldn't part with this place happily. But we had to, Denmark was beckoning. Hall took us to the train station, it was also hard to leave him! But we left him with a parting gift, we taught him the word "crunchy" meaning like very hippie and environmentalisty, yeah i know thats not a word! He used that word like a thousand times over our three days with him lol. We waved goodbye to him and spent the next four and half hours on the train back to London. We got to airport and had a few hours to roam, I discovered that if you buy things from the stores after you've been through security the 3 oz. liquid rule doesn't apply! So I had a little party in the pharmacy :] In Denmark everything is expensive, and they don't have any american brands of anything! So I stocked up on some more shampoo, conditioner, floss, toothpaste and chapstick :]]]] And I got all that stuff for cheaper that what it would cost me to just get the shampoo and conditioner in Denmark. Score for Alyssa! We got on the plane and said our final farewells to England. A few hours later we were back in Copenhagen, back to familiar places and people, and back to not understanding the language! I caught the metro, then the train and then the bus and then a bit of walking and I was home again, greeted by a leaping hug from Benedicte, she missed me :]
So now I'm back in Copenhagen, but watch out Totnes I'll be back, I promise you that :]
Well you heard about my fun arrival day in England, don't worry the trip was exponentially better from there :]
London with Mom:
My mom, and two ladies from Boeing also working in Bristol, and I took the train into London, beautiful scenery I can't even describe it! We had a few problems getting to our hotel, which was outside of downtown London, because they are working on some of the tube lines. We spent like half and hour trying to figure out what to do and eventually we just walked a mile or so to the hotel, which was pretty nice if you ask me. Up to the rooms we went, freshed ourselves up and headed to downtown London. First stop.....Hard Rock Cafe :] We did a bit of shopping, mom got me a HRC London sweatshirt :] and then had a late lunch, very late lol like 3 pm late! After delicious food and music time we did the sights!
We saw the Welllington Arch, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament, walked along the Thames, then took a boat trip down the Thames to the London Bridge. The London Bridge is actually not impressive at all! Its only cool in the old nursery song. The really spectacular bridge in London is the Tower Bridge, that takes you to the Tower of London. The Tower Bridge is so beautiful at night, with the glow from the river walk lights it really looks grand :] After crossing the bridge we wandered around the Tower of London, which was closed, and found a...Starbucks :] Yay!!!!!! So we had a nice leisurely sit down and drank some coffee. After our yummi coffe we thought we would walk along the Thames back to Big Ben...boy did we underestimate that distance! After probably 45 minutes of walking mom and I decided we couldn't take anymore! So we told her friends that we were going to catch the underground and set off on our journey to the hotel. We ate some dinner at like 10:30 pm, i don't think I have ever eaten that late before and i'm not the biggest fan lol. The next day her friends caught an early train back to Bristol, but mom and I did some more exploring! I packed up all my stuff and we traveled into London to store my stuff at the hotel I would stay in that night and set off for the London Eye!
Oh the London Eye, how fantastic a ferris wheel :] It was amazing to see the city from hundreds meters up, the view of the river and Big Ben was spectacular. I think if I had the option I could just rent live in one of those capsules and go round and round all day and night. We found a cheap chinese buffet for lunch, I just can't seem to stay away from chinese food lol :] More wandering around the city and we found our way back to my hotel. Mom came with me to check into my hotel, and then we had to say our goodbyes. I didn't realize until she was ready to leave that I was a little homesick for the people I love, not so much the place but the people who are around me everyday. I realize now how hard it can be to be thousands of miles away from friends and family.
Class Study Tour in London:
Monday morning I met up with my core class at a place called Transport for London. We had our first academic visit there, which I enjoyed alot! We learned all about London's public transit and the congestion charge and low emission zone. I learned quite a bit and am excited to see if any american cities can take note and implement some of their ideas. After the visit we went to the hotel and to lunch, then the Tower of London. We had the rest of the night as free time, so 12 of us set off back to the hotel, we managed the underground but got lost trying to get to the hotel from the station, it took almost an extra hour lol. I've come to realize that we are pretty directionally challenged when dropped into a new place! We saw the theater production of The Lion King, which was pretty fantastic, the British accents were a little strange though lol. I feel like the rest of London was kind of a blur to me, I was just too excited waiting to get to Devon, I really needed to be in the country side!
Study Tour in Devon:
We left London from Paddington Station and a three hour train ride later we were in Totnes! The train trip was beautiful, we went past an estuary and I sat in awe as we rolled by. We arrived in Totnes and met Hal, who works for Transition Town Totnes as a tour guide and workshop leader. He took us to where we were going to stay, Sharpam Estate, which was probably the most beautiful place i've ever been :] Sharpam Estate was like a mansion, the building is extremely old and was bombed in WWI, so they had to fix some of the bricks on the front of the mansion. The mansion is on a hill top surrounded by rolling hills and overlooking the dart River. Picture a postcard of the england countryside...got it? Well this view was better than that! The estate has their own dairy farm, a vineyard, some sheep and a small wool mill. When we arrived I stood outside and had to make sure that it was real, could I really be that lucky? Oh yes!! We had dinner, which was completely vegetarian and mostly local and organic, I was in food heaven! After dinner we had an evening academic session with Hal, he is super funny! Now that the academic junk was out of the way, Hal took us to a local bar to see another part of the town. It was a cool little local place with local and organic beers. We all had a good time just relaxing and hanging out, we learned a lot about our teacher, she used to live in Devon many years ago.
The next day we had more academic sessions but we also did some walking and touring, which was great! We took a small tour of Totnes, saw some sustainability, or resilience as Hal calls it, in action. After that we went to a woman named Lou's house to learn about the Transition Streets project they do. Transition Streets is a program where neighborhoods get together to promote sustainability amongst their community. Its actually an intense program with a handbook and professional workshops. Lou is one of the leaders in the program, so she had a lot of interesting stuff to tell us! Next we saw some smaller projects in action, we went to this small farm which is run by a school program, and met with a guy who grows organic mushrooms in an old shipping container, a little strange I know but he was a funny guy! Last we took off up a hillside to see an old farm and this beautiful place called Dartington Hall. Now i have to admit I don't really remember why Dartington Hall is significant, because I was paying to much attention to the spectacular view I had and not enough to what Hal was saying....oops :]
After all the exploring and learning we headed for a local pub called Albert Einsteins to meet with some more employees of Transition Town Totnes so we could ask questions and what not. After that we had some free time, so of course we went exploring more, found an old church and walked along the wall for a bit before setting off to find some food. A group of 8 or so of us decided on an asian restaurant, which was delicious :] It was fun to just eat food and hang out, we did have a mishap with my friends dinner, she is vegan so she ordered vegetarian pad thai without any egg...all good and fine until her food comes out, she starts to eat it and it tastes funny. Another girl from our class had a bite of it and sure enough it was chicken pad thai, so we got a lady over to the table and said this pad thai has chicken, to which she responds "not chicken, vegetarian" and my friend holds up her fork and says "then whats this?" and then the woman was apologetic lol. Allison got some new food, but felt a little sick afterwards from eating that little bit of chicken. After dinner we met up with the big group again and headed back to the Albert Einstein Pub again to relax, we played some old music on the juke box and listened to the bar owner crack jokes for awhile. Hal came to pick us up in the bus and we headed back to Sharpham to get some well earned sleep :]
The next day was wonderful! We started off the morning with a short walk around Sharpham Estate and then set off to explore Dartmoor National Park. Man what I would do to live in Devon! Dartmoor was spectacular, awful in the actual meaning of the word, I was full of awe. Everywhere you looked there were hills and mountains and rocks and sheep and cows. I felt like I was in a movie, when the close up on people walking along some grass lands and then the camera zooms out and you see that they are walking on this vast hill top, that was basically what we were doing! We walked towards a cliff side and then stopped for a quick academic session, we learned about Gaia Theory, but more importantly we sat on these magnificent rocks and watched the river below us shimmer in the sunlight. I don't know if I've ever felt so invigorated, I felt so lucky to have the opportunity to look out over this amazing place, I couldn't have asked for anything better. We left Dartmoor and set off for Riverford Organic Farm, where we would be eating lunch, they have a field kitchen which is basically a restaurant that serves you the best organic and local food in the entire world, or at least thats what it seemed like to me :] I mean I love my grandma's cooking, but this was like grandma's home cooking on organic steroids! After we were stuffed full, and I mean that literally I think we were almost leaking pureed parsnips lol, Hal made us walk up a hill so we could see the whole farm. This task essentially turned into us walking up said hill and then literally collapsing in the grass because the sunshine was so fantastic and we were just so full!
We went back to Sharpham for another academic session, but this time we met outside on the bank of the river, it was probably the best "class" i've ever had to go to lol. We did some talking and then we had to have a solo assignment, we all had to take 20 minutes and go somewhere nearby to sit and sense nature and be silent, we were supposed to just slow down and really notice and feel where we were. Basically the best assignment ever :] I went walking along the river and took my time to notice what was around me, I listened to the birds sing and listened as my footsteps crunched on the soil, leaves and branches. Nothing had called to me yet so I just kept walking. Eventually I found a giant fallen tree that was in the river bed, it was low tide don't worry I didn't go swimming lol. So I climbed out on it and sat, I just sat there and watched the water flow and listen to the birds, I watched the birds swoop into the river and fight with the other birds, I felt the bark around me and looked at the old spider webs down the tree trunk. I closed my eyes and smelled the river water and felt the wind on my face and listed to the popping sound of the water and the sand. I think I could have sat there for hours, listening to the birds and feeling the wind around me, with that aroma of fresh water and trees. I honestly felt like Pocahontas when she sings Color of the Wind, I didn't hear any wolves crying to the moon but I felt alive and like I was a part of that place, I felt like the tree I was sitting on somehow could feel me too, it know that I was there taking in the feel and smell of the bark. I was a little sad to leave my tree when Hal called for us to come back, but I think it will remember that I was there, I know I can never forget my twenty minutes in that spot.
We shared our thoughts and then said goodbye to one of the facilitators that was helping Hal, Inez, because she had to go home to her son. We had an hour of free time before dinner so Allison and I went walking along the river bank, it was nice to see another part of the river. Then we headed for the house, but got distracted on the way up by the most adorable sheep! We went inside the pen with them and spent some quality time with their fluffy little selves. When we went to leave, they ran after us, it was so cute :] Then as we walked on towards the house we had a conversation with them through "baaaaaaaaahhhhhs". Literally! I would "baaaahhhh" and they would respond to me and that went on until we reached the front door of the house. I can communicate with sheep, yes!! We went inside for dinner and met the owner Sharpham Estate, he told us a bit of the history and asked if we were enjoying ourselves, there was a resounding "YES!" to that questions :] We had our last night session, and went upstairs to start packing up our stuff, we had to leave the next morning at 8:45 :[[
All good things must come to an end, it sucks! We got ready to leave and you could feel the heartbreak that was happening to everyone in my class, we really didn't want to leave. You could see it in our faces and hear it in our voices, we couldn't part with this place happily. But we had to, Denmark was beckoning. Hall took us to the train station, it was also hard to leave him! But we left him with a parting gift, we taught him the word "crunchy" meaning like very hippie and environmentalisty, yeah i know thats not a word! He used that word like a thousand times over our three days with him lol. We waved goodbye to him and spent the next four and half hours on the train back to London. We got to airport and had a few hours to roam, I discovered that if you buy things from the stores after you've been through security the 3 oz. liquid rule doesn't apply! So I had a little party in the pharmacy :] In Denmark everything is expensive, and they don't have any american brands of anything! So I stocked up on some more shampoo, conditioner, floss, toothpaste and chapstick :]]]] And I got all that stuff for cheaper that what it would cost me to just get the shampoo and conditioner in Denmark. Score for Alyssa! We got on the plane and said our final farewells to England. A few hours later we were back in Copenhagen, back to familiar places and people, and back to not understanding the language! I caught the metro, then the train and then the bus and then a bit of walking and I was home again, greeted by a leaping hug from Benedicte, she missed me :]
So now I'm back in Copenhagen, but watch out Totnes I'll be back, I promise you that :]
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Just one of those days
Well well it is that time again, time to tell you more about my life!
I have been dealing with the aftermath of my wallet getting stolen, I never really appreciated having a wallet at my fingertips until now, I also never realized how many things I need on a day to day basis. Classes this week have been pretty typical, you know me trying to focus but instead looking at my split ends lol. I did get my danish test back...B+ ohhhh yeah! Living with a host family is actually helping my grades lol :]
Wednesday was a long day, a bit frustrating but in the end fine. I had a field study with my danish class to Christiania, which is this alternative commune/town place full of squatters where they live communally with no cars and smoke hash, pretty interesting stuff lol. Some of the buildings are left over from when the area belonged to the military, but many were made by residents, so no joke a lot of them looked like old shacks. We had a guided tour from a woman who came from Sweden to visit Christiania in 1976 and just never left! She told us that none of the buildings have heating! I feel frozen constantly in Denmark and I have a heated house, I can't imagine living with them, frostbite must run rampant! It was sooo cold outside that I couldn't fully enjoy the trip to Christiania, so i'll have to go back in the spring, when I will be able to feel my toes!
After Christiania I had some annoying errands to run to get my wallet stuff together, which involved going to the Kommune again to get a replacement CPR card, which by the way are expensive! Almost 200 kroner to replace what some loser stole from me! So now I just have a temporary card and i'm waiting for my real one to come in the mail.
Thursday my friend Alana came home with me after Danish class so she could have dinner with my host family, she lives in a kollegium and needed some "warm and fuzzy danish family time" as we like to call it lol :] We had quite a fun time getting home, she had never really been up north of Copenhagen where I live so the view was very new to her and she loved it! When we were walking from the bus stop to my house she was just in awe of the neighborhood I live in, she was like "okay I'm coming home with you a lot now!" I gave her a tour of the house and she met the fam. Benedicte and her bonded over music tastes so naturally Benedicte loved her ;] We ate a delicious homemade meal that Christina cooked and then chit chatted until I walked her back to the bus stop so she could make her way home. I went home and finished packing! Packing for what you ask....LONDON! Thats right I am currently in London :] But boy was it a difficult task to get to this hotel where I am typing this from!
Lets start off where I missed my train this morning because I needed to purchase some extra train zones to get to the aiport. I caught the next one, but then when I got to Norreport I had to spring to catch the metro that goes to the airport, I almost smacked an old woman in a fur coat with my suitcase because she was going too slow and I needed to be on that Metro! Now the fun starts....airports are extremely confusing, particularly the Copenhagen airport! I take for granted that I have always been travelling with other people when I got to airports, I rarely have to figure it out for myself. I wandered around the entrance area for awhile trying to figure out where I should check in for Easyjet, eventually I talked to a man working for SAS and he told me to just keep walking. So ten minutes more of walking and I found my check in! I checked in and checked my bag and went walking for security, which was up some stairs and around the corner. I got all the way there when I realized I still had a waterbottle full of liquid! I tried to drink some and ended up spilling water down my front so I decided to go back to the check in area and dump it in a bathroom sink. Alright next attempt at security! Following the pattern of events from the last week that led to this point of course when I went through ecurity the detector went off, so I had to be hand searched, it wasn't overly invasive, but when you have to stand an on box in ront of all the other people walking through security its a bit embarassing!
I got to my terminal and waited for an hour, I was lucky I got there kinda early because there isn't a waiting area with chairs like the Seattle airport by the gate, there are just 4 stone benches for all the passengers of a flight to fight over, I got a corner! The boarding process was an absolute mess! Basically everyone just attacked the gate, there was no line really just a mass and no control from the workers, they just let us have at it. There were also no assigned seats, which was interesting, so you just get on the plane and look for an open seat and park your rear end in it. The flight was pretty smooth, once I got to London is where the extra fun started!
I waited in line at border control for an hour and a half! I don't think I have ever waited that long at airport border control before, but this way I'll be prepared if I go to London again. I finally made it through security, that was a interesting explanation..."why are you in london?" "I'm visiting my mom and studying" "You're studying for nine days?" "uhhh well its hard to explain, im studying in copenhagen and we are taking an academic 6 day trip to london for class, but I came early to see my mom who is working outside of london right now" "Right" *Stamp* Yay, I got through border control!
I got my suitcase from baggage claim and then the only thing standing in my way was having to get to Bristol, my mom is staying in Bristol which is a few hours outside London. See I had already boughten a train ticket online to get from the London Gatwick airport to Bristol Temple Meads station, I was supposed to pick it up a self-service ticket box at the train platform. Only problem was that you needed the credit card used to make the purchase to get the ticket, and that credit card is God knows where since it was stolen! My mom decided to wire me some money so I could get another train ticket at the airport train station. The money she wired came in Danish Kroner so I had to go to a currency counter to exchange it for GBP. I had to spend a bit of the money she spent to get to the copenhagen airport this morning and a bit to pay for my replacement kommune card, I didn't know it would be so expensive, so I got 37.50 GBP. I was a little worried when I only got that much from the currency place but figured it would be enough, the ticket online I bought was like 18 GBP. So I waited in line at the train ticket counter and when I got up I asked for a ticket to Bristol Temple Meads, he rang up the price....like 58 GBP...WHAT!!!! I started to freak out, I only had 37.50 GBP to my name, no cards to use since they were stolen and no more money, nothing!
I spent a few minutes freaking out, I tried to call my mom but the number she gave me said it was not accepting calls...FANTASTIC! Was I really going to be stranded at the Gatwick airport?! No!!! After a few minutes of panicking I got my game face on and walked up to another counter and said "How can I get to Bristol for 37.50£" The desk agent told me to take a train to Victoria Station and then catch a coach bus from there to Bristol, it would be like 4 hours or so. I did just that and ended up on the coach, starving however because the tickets cost me like 36£ so I didn't have any money left for food like I had planned. The woman sitting next to me on the bus was very nice, so that made my day a bit better!
We got to the Bristol coach station and I walked inside looking for a map or a phone book or anything, and totally forgot to get my suitcase from under the bus...a few minutes later I realized that something was wrong and went running back to find the bus! Luckily the driver was just closing up to leave and I just shouted at her "wait wait I left my bag", she was kinda mad at me actually for leaving my bag, I was just like uhh whatever just give me my suitcase! I tried my mom again, no answer, I looked around the bus station for a map, no such luck! I asked a counter for a phone book and found the hotel, called them and asked to be transferred to my mom's room...no answer! UHHHHHHHH I was really starting to get annoyed! Eventually I left a message with the hotel asking my mom to call me immediately when she got back.
I had been hanging around the bus station for like half and hour and still had no idea what to do so I just decided to start walking. I asked some random strangers if they knew where the Marriot hotel was and got some not so great directions! I even got yelled at my some old drunk man for wheeling my suitcase on the cobble stones because it was to loud. If I wasn't so scared I might have just yelled at him to bug off lol. Eventually after God knows how long I spent wandering down the streets in the dark I finally found the hotel! I was so happy you don't even know it had been such a long day. I went inside and got a room key and went to my mom's room, she wasn't there! It was like 7:30, where was she!! I just crashed and an hour later she got back to the room. The first thing she said was "What happened to calling me when you arrived?" to which I replyed "I'VE BEEN TRYING TO CALL YOU FOR 6 HOURS!!!!!!" Turns out her work cell phone wasn't recieving any calls, just going straight to voicemail. I explained my day to her and then we went to find some dinner, which was much appreciated since I hadn't eaten since 11. So I was full of pizza and finally happy after the most ridiculous day ever!
I have just one last thing to say....I'M IN LONDON :]
I have been dealing with the aftermath of my wallet getting stolen, I never really appreciated having a wallet at my fingertips until now, I also never realized how many things I need on a day to day basis. Classes this week have been pretty typical, you know me trying to focus but instead looking at my split ends lol. I did get my danish test back...B+ ohhhh yeah! Living with a host family is actually helping my grades lol :]
Wednesday was a long day, a bit frustrating but in the end fine. I had a field study with my danish class to Christiania, which is this alternative commune/town place full of squatters where they live communally with no cars and smoke hash, pretty interesting stuff lol. Some of the buildings are left over from when the area belonged to the military, but many were made by residents, so no joke a lot of them looked like old shacks. We had a guided tour from a woman who came from Sweden to visit Christiania in 1976 and just never left! She told us that none of the buildings have heating! I feel frozen constantly in Denmark and I have a heated house, I can't imagine living with them, frostbite must run rampant! It was sooo cold outside that I couldn't fully enjoy the trip to Christiania, so i'll have to go back in the spring, when I will be able to feel my toes!
After Christiania I had some annoying errands to run to get my wallet stuff together, which involved going to the Kommune again to get a replacement CPR card, which by the way are expensive! Almost 200 kroner to replace what some loser stole from me! So now I just have a temporary card and i'm waiting for my real one to come in the mail.
Thursday my friend Alana came home with me after Danish class so she could have dinner with my host family, she lives in a kollegium and needed some "warm and fuzzy danish family time" as we like to call it lol :] We had quite a fun time getting home, she had never really been up north of Copenhagen where I live so the view was very new to her and she loved it! When we were walking from the bus stop to my house she was just in awe of the neighborhood I live in, she was like "okay I'm coming home with you a lot now!" I gave her a tour of the house and she met the fam. Benedicte and her bonded over music tastes so naturally Benedicte loved her ;] We ate a delicious homemade meal that Christina cooked and then chit chatted until I walked her back to the bus stop so she could make her way home. I went home and finished packing! Packing for what you ask....LONDON! Thats right I am currently in London :] But boy was it a difficult task to get to this hotel where I am typing this from!
Lets start off where I missed my train this morning because I needed to purchase some extra train zones to get to the aiport. I caught the next one, but then when I got to Norreport I had to spring to catch the metro that goes to the airport, I almost smacked an old woman in a fur coat with my suitcase because she was going too slow and I needed to be on that Metro! Now the fun starts....airports are extremely confusing, particularly the Copenhagen airport! I take for granted that I have always been travelling with other people when I got to airports, I rarely have to figure it out for myself. I wandered around the entrance area for awhile trying to figure out where I should check in for Easyjet, eventually I talked to a man working for SAS and he told me to just keep walking. So ten minutes more of walking and I found my check in! I checked in and checked my bag and went walking for security, which was up some stairs and around the corner. I got all the way there when I realized I still had a waterbottle full of liquid! I tried to drink some and ended up spilling water down my front so I decided to go back to the check in area and dump it in a bathroom sink. Alright next attempt at security! Following the pattern of events from the last week that led to this point of course when I went through ecurity the detector went off, so I had to be hand searched, it wasn't overly invasive, but when you have to stand an on box in ront of all the other people walking through security its a bit embarassing!
I got to my terminal and waited for an hour, I was lucky I got there kinda early because there isn't a waiting area with chairs like the Seattle airport by the gate, there are just 4 stone benches for all the passengers of a flight to fight over, I got a corner! The boarding process was an absolute mess! Basically everyone just attacked the gate, there was no line really just a mass and no control from the workers, they just let us have at it. There were also no assigned seats, which was interesting, so you just get on the plane and look for an open seat and park your rear end in it. The flight was pretty smooth, once I got to London is where the extra fun started!
I waited in line at border control for an hour and a half! I don't think I have ever waited that long at airport border control before, but this way I'll be prepared if I go to London again. I finally made it through security, that was a interesting explanation..."why are you in london?" "I'm visiting my mom and studying" "You're studying for nine days?" "uhhh well its hard to explain, im studying in copenhagen and we are taking an academic 6 day trip to london for class, but I came early to see my mom who is working outside of london right now" "Right" *Stamp* Yay, I got through border control!
I got my suitcase from baggage claim and then the only thing standing in my way was having to get to Bristol, my mom is staying in Bristol which is a few hours outside London. See I had already boughten a train ticket online to get from the London Gatwick airport to Bristol Temple Meads station, I was supposed to pick it up a self-service ticket box at the train platform. Only problem was that you needed the credit card used to make the purchase to get the ticket, and that credit card is God knows where since it was stolen! My mom decided to wire me some money so I could get another train ticket at the airport train station. The money she wired came in Danish Kroner so I had to go to a currency counter to exchange it for GBP. I had to spend a bit of the money she spent to get to the copenhagen airport this morning and a bit to pay for my replacement kommune card, I didn't know it would be so expensive, so I got 37.50 GBP. I was a little worried when I only got that much from the currency place but figured it would be enough, the ticket online I bought was like 18 GBP. So I waited in line at the train ticket counter and when I got up I asked for a ticket to Bristol Temple Meads, he rang up the price....like 58 GBP...WHAT!!!! I started to freak out, I only had 37.50 GBP to my name, no cards to use since they were stolen and no more money, nothing!
I spent a few minutes freaking out, I tried to call my mom but the number she gave me said it was not accepting calls...FANTASTIC! Was I really going to be stranded at the Gatwick airport?! No!!! After a few minutes of panicking I got my game face on and walked up to another counter and said "How can I get to Bristol for 37.50£" The desk agent told me to take a train to Victoria Station and then catch a coach bus from there to Bristol, it would be like 4 hours or so. I did just that and ended up on the coach, starving however because the tickets cost me like 36£ so I didn't have any money left for food like I had planned. The woman sitting next to me on the bus was very nice, so that made my day a bit better!
We got to the Bristol coach station and I walked inside looking for a map or a phone book or anything, and totally forgot to get my suitcase from under the bus...a few minutes later I realized that something was wrong and went running back to find the bus! Luckily the driver was just closing up to leave and I just shouted at her "wait wait I left my bag", she was kinda mad at me actually for leaving my bag, I was just like uhh whatever just give me my suitcase! I tried my mom again, no answer, I looked around the bus station for a map, no such luck! I asked a counter for a phone book and found the hotel, called them and asked to be transferred to my mom's room...no answer! UHHHHHHHH I was really starting to get annoyed! Eventually I left a message with the hotel asking my mom to call me immediately when she got back.
I had been hanging around the bus station for like half and hour and still had no idea what to do so I just decided to start walking. I asked some random strangers if they knew where the Marriot hotel was and got some not so great directions! I even got yelled at my some old drunk man for wheeling my suitcase on the cobble stones because it was to loud. If I wasn't so scared I might have just yelled at him to bug off lol. Eventually after God knows how long I spent wandering down the streets in the dark I finally found the hotel! I was so happy you don't even know it had been such a long day. I went inside and got a room key and went to my mom's room, she wasn't there! It was like 7:30, where was she!! I just crashed and an hour later she got back to the room. The first thing she said was "What happened to calling me when you arrived?" to which I replyed "I'VE BEEN TRYING TO CALL YOU FOR 6 HOURS!!!!!!" Turns out her work cell phone wasn't recieving any calls, just going straight to voicemail. I explained my day to her and then we went to find some dinner, which was much appreciated since I hadn't eaten since 11. So I was full of pizza and finally happy after the most ridiculous day ever!
I have just one last thing to say....I'M IN LONDON :]
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