pictures

a very tired me at the end of the day

another view from the top

the top of this route, and me.

The group down below. I am at the top of one of the climbs. not that high, but still a great view!

The Shoreline next to where we went climbing

Tine, Lizzy, and me at the top of the very old Round Tower with a great view of Copenhagen

at the soccer game wearing a friend's F.C. København's spirit scarf. They obviously won

A Viking Ship! and Tine and me

my lunch again  : )

Sadly the picture I took of the jellyfish won't load but I will try again next time!

Climbing in Sweden

This evening was overall very relaxing and began with a dinner with Lizzy and Anya at Anya's host family's house. We had some delicious carbonara and wine, and Lizzy and I did not leave until 11.30. we walked 25 minutes to the metro, rode it back to a train station in copenhagen, and caught separate trains home. My train arrived in Roskilde at 1.12 am, and the night bus that runs every hour left at 1.08. really sad about that. So I had to wait 56 minutes for the next bus, and I didn't get home until 2.30 (3 hours after I left Anya's) not cool at all, however, I did get to spend that hour talking to a woman who teaches English at the engineering highschool in Roskilde, and she was pretty interesting and a lot of fun to talk to. Sadly, I had to wake up at 5.30 in order to get to the climbing trip, so I got very very little sleep.
     I managed to sleep a little on the drive to Sweden though (2 hours including the ferry and the driving in sweden), but I obviously had to go up on the passenger deck on the ferry and enjoy the sea mist and wind as we passed by Hamlet's castle in Helsingør. It was all beautiful even though it was a very early gray and rainy morning. The countryside of sweden was much hillier than flat Denmark, and it had lots of beautiful woods compared to Denmark's farmland. Apparently though we were in some sort of natural park. When we arrived, we hiked down to the ocean, and the guides told us all about climbing safety and set up routes on the kind of small cliffs right by the ocean. Thankfully I brought my climbing shoes because the rock was pretty wet and slippery. We had four routes total, and it was a lot of fun to get to know everyone while watching others try to figure out how to get up the cliff. I spent some time belaying too, and by the end of the day I had climbed all of the routes. So I went down to the ocean with a girl named Julie to look at the tide pools. we saw some amazing jellyfish and were so entranced that we stayed by the shoreline for the last hour of the day. It was so great, and even though it had rained on us a little, the day was overall pretty great. When we got back to DIS, Julie, Lizzy, and this guy Alex, and I went to get hot drinks to warm up. We went to this little cafe that Lizzy and I have discovered to have the best hot chocolate you can find, and it was so cozy and wonderful that we didn't want to leave. So we were a little late for our train, and we had to run the entire normally 12 minute walk. Thank goodness I have been running so often these past few weeks. We made the train, and Lizzy and I headed back to my house. we had canceled our evening plans because we were so tired from no sleep the night before. when we got home, we took very refreshing hot showers, had a delicious dinner of lasagna, and passed out. fabulous.
    I had all of yesterday to myself, so I read a lot and went running and biking and did my homework and skyped some too, and it was a very relaxing day overall. Next weekend I am going to Poland and Berlin for a week with one of my classes, and Lizzy and I are extending the trip through the following weekend so that we can stay and explore Berlin. This was a very spontaneous plan, and we could not be more excited about it.

recent adventures

I got the seventh harry potter book to reread before the movie comes out in november, and it has definitely taken up most of my free time this week. Nevertheless, I did go to Tivoli Gardens on Saturday evening with Lizzy, and we did lots of exciting rides and enjoyed the beautiful gardens as well. I am proud to say that I overcame a lifelong fear and actually did the ride that lifts you up high above the city and then pauses long enough for you to fully grasp how high up you are and then drops you at a free fall back to the bottom. my stomach usually flips just looking at those rides, but I managed to talk myself into pretty easily when lizzy insisted, and I actually stayed pretty calm, unlike lizzy who completely freaked out at the top, and of course we were both terrified when it dropped. it was so exhilarating that at first we couldn't stop laughing, and it took nearly 20 minutes for us to fully calm back down. totally thrilling and I highly recommend it, especially if you think you are too scared.

  My host family was out of town, so Lizzy and I went back to my house for the night and cooked some pasta for dinner, drank some wine, and watched the Devil wears prada. a very relaxing night.
Sunday, we were lucky enough to attend the biggest rivalry soccer game of the season in Copenhagen. We went to a huge stadium (with our danish classes) and sat very high up with a great view of the field. FC København won 2-0 over the other team, which was glorious, and the other team's fans kept throwing flares onto the field. there were hundreds of policemen in their area, and someone even started a fire in one of the seats. Apparently the fighting that took place after was some of the worst in a long time. These games are so crazy that they have organized fights set up between rivaling fans for after. Luckily i didn't see any, but I did have to ride home on the train with a lot of drunk, loud, and obnoxious fans from the losing team.  

Otherwise, I have been going to school, and yesterday I had a day off, which I spent working, reading, and walking the rabbits with Tine. Laila's aunt and her friend arrived from Canada, so we had an excellent dinner of traditional danish open faced sandwiches with Laks! and I had to try some of their pickled herring, which was actually pretty good. we also drank many kinds of danish alcohol followed by a very full glass of wine. It is always surprising how they just keep feeling it long after Americans would stop pouring. but it was tasty, and for dessert, we had flørboller, (no idea how to really spell it), which is delicious. This weekend I am going climbing on the coast of sweden, so that should be another great adventure!

I thought it was funny that this is a flavor of chips

Lizzy lurking in the flowers

The royal summer house

Anja and me at the royal summer house

the traditional danish open faced sandwiches we got to try for lunch

Lizzy and me on the bike tour

Our tour guide from the rainy bike tour of Arhus, the second largest city in Denmark

Vikings!

  The Danes are descendants of the Vikings, and they like to think they are in fact also vikings. They will all quickly share their loving admiration of the vikings at the mention of the word.  The Vikings were really intense, and their conquests and travels are actually phenomenal. Their skills in shipbuilding are perhaps unmatched. But the funny part is, Danes pronounce V as a W so they call them Wikings, and its really hard to take their adoration seriously when they keep saying wiking. Its hilarous.  They also have seven elevens everywhere, but they say sewen elewen, and its just great to listen to.
   On wednesday I didn't have any classes, so I woke up and went on a 45 min. exploratory run, to sort of survey the area, and although it was really windy, it was sunny and cool and perfect for running. After that I got some breakfast did some work. When Tine got home from school around 1:00, Laila, Tine, and I went into Roskilde and walked along the waterfront. We stopped into a glassblowing studio and art gallery, and then we walked over to the Viking Museum. We could see all the workshops where men were fixing up and renovating all the ships that had been found at the bottom of the fjord right there, and the carpenters have to use the same tools the vikings used to fix up the ships again. It was really really cool, and I also loved the smell of fresh wood. The renovated boats are displayed and also available to go out in, so you can hop in a boat with 25 other people, and it looked a lot like rafting, with a guide at the front telling them when to row. it was great to watch because at first the groups were always a mess. The Museum shop was great too, but I usually love those. The weather was pretty cold and rainy, so eventually we went into a cafe and got cappucinos. Before going home, they took me to the library so I could get lots of travel books and the latest Harry Potter book, since the movie is coming out in November!   When we got home, I made some banana bread and then I cooked dinner. I made this fabulous Goat cheese and tomato pie, where you make the crust big enough to kind of fold up over the top. Laila didn't think they had goat cheese though, we used cheddar and mozzarella, and it was still great. The recipe is one of Carolyn's specialties, so thank you! I also made broccoli,  and chicken with lemon and pepper. Laila made the rest of my cookie dough into delicious cookies for dessert. 
   Thursday wasn't too exciting because I had a test to study for, and I went home with my friend Anja to have dinner and study for a while, and I got home late and pretty much went to bed. Friday was similar, and I studied a lot and felt very prepared for the test, and then I found myself looking at the first question with a blank stare. Our teacher isn't great, and we were totally underprepared for the test, but Anja and I had done a lot to teach ourselves. But the questions were extremely obscure and some of them were based on passing comments she had made. they answers weren't in my notes, the chapter we read, or her slides from class. So I had to make up a few answers. Most of it was fine though. One of the questions asked for the name of the disease where you had blue skin (which no one in the class recalls ever learning), and I put smurf syndrome. Figured it was worth a shot, and I had no clue at all.  After the 1.5 hours of notetaking that followed the test, Lizzy and I walked out into the rain to a bakery where we ate a croissant and recovered for a few minutes. Then we met up with my other friend Anya, and my host brother Jon and his friend Mike. Together we went and grabbed a quick dinner and headed into the fairytale world of Christiania. Christiania is a small independent town in the heart of Copenhagen, and it has a town center, a lake, and a lot of ramshackle colorful houses. It feels like you are walking into children's overnight camp or something.  The difference is that the people of Christiania are real hippies. and they have weed to buy and sell everywhere, even though its illegal in Denmark, and there are a lot of very grungy or bizarrely dressed people. It was so strange and unlike anything I had ever seen. I saw a group of 8-12 year olds smoking together in a group outside of the kindergarten, and that was also the strangest thing ever. It was all so surreal. Then I ran into the teaching assistant from my medical class, and Lizzy and I talked to her for a few minutes, but it was a slightly awkward place to run into the 25 year old (who will be grading my test) in a place like that.
   Eventually Anya, Lizzy, and I got cold so we went back to Copenhagen to a cafe/bookshop and got peach ciders and a slice of chocolate cake. It was great and a great way to relax from the week. Also, I will be going to Switzerland with Anya in November.

pictures!

We found our way from the woods to the ocean.

The woods with great trails around our hostel in Arhus

The dessert from the same restaurant by the sea 

my fabulous lunch of fish by the sea on our study tour

The meeting room at the hospital with the neuro research. They had real orchids on every table!

Lizzy and me in front of the City Hall in Copenhagen after class one evening

Study Tour

        I think this time I will work from today backwards to the study tour.  Today was great because in my Human Health and Disease class, we got to learn how to check a patient's lungs by tapping on their back and chest, listen to the patient's heart in all different places so as to hear all the valves while taking her pulse, and then we got to learn how to do spinal taps and IVs. We got to practice on manikins that had veins and a spine with red liquid in them, so we could tell when we did it correctly. First we did the cardiopulmonary stuff, and they separated the guys from the girls. Then our young female teacher Signe started to tell us that we would have to take off our shirts to see what we needed to do, and she began to pull off lizzy's shirt so that she could give a demonstration!!!! we all started laughing like crazy and thought it was so funny that Signe hadn't thought anything of it, while in America this would have been unheard of. She said that in some cases it is necessary to remove the bra but that we wouldn't do that today because 3 weeks may not be enough time for Americans to adjust to the European lack of modesty. She taught us the pulmonary part and we all took off our shirts and tried it on eachother, and then she taught us about where to listen to the heart. So there are like 14 of us standing there around our teacher wearing nothing but Jeans and bras of all varieties getting a lecture. It was so funny. and very European. 
   The IVs were really cool because after class we could try it on each other. Lizzy and I did really well on the manikin but not quite so beautifully on each other. She went first and stuck me too deep, and instead of letting her fix it, our other teacher Peter kind of took the reins and corrected her. We both wish he had let her figure it out, even though it wasn't very comfortable and did leave me with a swollen spot and a small bruise. It was worth it though in order for her to let me try. i don't know what went wrong for me, but it didn't go quite right, to low or a little off the vein, but Peter thought I had gotten it and told me to remove the needle and cap it, so I did, and in fact no blood came out, so I hadn't gotten it and it was too late to try again. That was too bad for both of us because we were both excited to really get to try it. Even still, it was all really really cool!
     I must say that a Danish gym can be quite intimidating. It doesn't seem so at first, but then you look around and see all these tall thin super fit women running really fast on the treadmills and the 6'3" and taller men lifting huge weights. They are super trim but still really really strong and also really tall. Definitely an interesting place, and then there are all the teenage guys just like at home, and they all wear workout capris. I went to the gym with Laila and Jon last night, and it was a great success.
      Also, today I got hot chocolate with raspberries in it, and it was phenomenal. the raspberries floated just beneath the whip cream and added a fabulous tart fruit taste.  I am now going to skip back to Sunday...sadly I didn't get to do too much because I had a lot of homework and a test to prepare for, but I did make my family chocolate chip cookies. Tine and I biked to the store to get supplies, and they don't have chocolate chips here, so you just buy chocolate and cut it up. I had two chocolate bars, dark chocolate and a hazelnut chocolate. when i chopped them, some pieces were barely crumbs, and others were nice chunks. The small crumbs infused the cookies with a hazelnut flavor and the big chunks were clearly evident in the cookies, like normal. I followed alice's cooking guidelines and took them out a minute early, and they were amazing!!!! I was very happy with them, and the family devoured them happily.
      The study tour from thursday to saturday for my human health and disease class was great. on Thursday we drove 2 hours to Odense on the more western island of Fyn and we visited the Hans Christian Anderson children's hospital which also had one of the best centers for children's cancer patients. We had some bread and coffee while learning about what they do and diseases they research and treat, and then we took a tour and met a baby. It was really cool, and I left feeling really inspired. Then we went into town for lunch and then half of us went to an art museum and half to the Hans Christian Anderson museum. I went to see art, and it was really cool.  Then we drove to our hostel, which was really nice and had a great dinner and then heard a talk from our fabulous student assistant (current medical student) Astrid about Danish healthcare. we went to bed really early for once and left in the morning for one of the top neurological research facilities in the world. We got a great talk about the brain and then learned all about the research they do and their collaborations with top mathematicians, physicists, doctors, and other scientists  to develop the best technology to make curing patients safer and easier.
   we went to a fancy lunch of delicious fish and chocolate mousse/wafer cake with berries in a little restaurant by the sea, and then we headed back into Arhus to go to a general practitioner's office. we learned a lot about how their health care system is set up and how it is different from ours, and i thought it was the best visit so far, partly because it was the easiest to compare to home. we had the evening free, so some of us went to a pub for dinner and got delicious hamburgers, and then we went to the grocery and bought some somersby cider. I bought pear and elderflower, and they were delicious. we were going to go to a bar and then a club, but we walked around for a while waiting for the night to get late enough. We went to a bar and hung out with some other DIS students, but my friends and I went home afterwards and skipped the club because it was getting pretty late and we didnt want to pay to get in. Even still we only got 6 hours of sleep. we woke up the next morning for a bike tour of the city, in the rain, and our guide was quite talkative. It took 5 hours but we did get to visit the royal summer house gardens, and we learned how to tell a building from the 1500's from one built in the 1600's or 1700's. and I thought that was pretty cool. we had traditional smørbord for lunch (open topped sandwich) and they were pretty good, although i wasn't entirely sure what i was eating. 
      Finally we went to an art museum, but we were all so wet and cold that Astrid bought us all cafe lattes from the museum cafe first. we went to see the "I Love You" visit with a tour guide, and he was young and quite inappropriate, and it was actually hilarious. when we arrived he told us that his english might not be great because he had just been napping in the employee lounge, and at the end of the visit, he asked if we had any questions bc if not he was ready to go start drinking because it was the perfect weekend since his girlfriend was out of town. I don't really know why that is a good thing, but it was pretty funny that he told all of us that as part of the tour.

Picture update

The old train we arrived on

Our family picnic prepared by Laila (Flemming on the right) out in the railway park

We are in an old fashioned phonebook at the railway park/museum

Tine and Laila with Tine's homeade strawberry cream birthday cake, which was amazing

Tine on the ocean!

I got the dumpy life jacket with a mane. it was hilarious because it kept flapping in the wind. and my head mobility was a bit reduced too : )

a few things to catch up on

I can't believe I have been here almost 3 weeks. it feels like I have been here forever, yet it seems crazy that this much time has actually gone by. So much has happened so quickly that its hard to keep up. Consequently I have gotten a little behind on my blogging, and so I will have to summarize a little bit. Before that, I thought I might introduce the setting. its around 11:30, and I am sitting, pretty exhausted, at my desk while a rave is going on downstairs. I can hear people talking and making lots of noise, and the music is extremely audible. Tine is having her joint birthday party, and they made little homeade pizzas and pigs in a blanket for everyone. I had to have some for dinner because I didn't get home from my study tour until 10:30, and they didn't provide dinner on the 4 hour drive home. Wow,  now some seriously loud lady gaga is vibrating my floor. I may never get sleep, but I am glad they are having fun.

   So last sunday, we went out in their speed boat, and we had a beautiful drive down to the ocean south of copenhagen to this beautiful, quaint little marina with a small street and lots of ice-cream stands. We ignored these temptations for the moment and put the boat in the water and set off. The ocean was a deep atlantic blue color, and the sky was just gorgeous too. It was chilly and breezy, and we were wearing jeans, jackets, and windbreakers. the wind made the ocean a little choppy, but this did not interfere with the guys' love of driving fast. tine and I were sitting in the very front of the boat, and we were getting some serious jumps. I flew out of my seat many times, and had it not been for the handles that I gripped for dear life, I might have been ejected. But it was a blast and the coast was beautiful from out on the water. We drove around for a while and then found a sandbar to stop and have a snack over.  we had the rest of the muffins and cinnamon "snails" along with some delicious sandwiches laila had thought to bring along.
     Since I had only gotten two hours of sleep, I thought I would be wiped out, but the ocean spray and the wind kept me very awake. There were also a lot of great sailboats to watch. After driving around some more after our lunch, Ulrik decides to go skiing. So he puts on his wetsuit, since the water is only 16 degrees C, and jumps into the freezing water. I didn't dare get in. He was good and seemed to have fun despite some of the bumps, but he told us to stop before long because it was so cold. We didn't stay out too much longer, and after we got the boat out of the water, Laila sent us off to get some ice-cream if we wanted. I was really happy about this because these healthy Danes never eat it, and thanks to my dear dad, I love ice-cream and was really beginning to miss it.  The car ride home was pretty pleasant, although I don't really know because I was pretty much asleep the whole time.
   Monday, tuesday, and Wednesday consisted of lots of class, work, and the purchasing of airplane tickets. I spent most of it in a frenzy trying to solidify my travel plans for november, and I have nearly gotten it figured out. the last part is choosing between Pisa and Rome Italy. I have already spent 2 days in Rome before, so I thought I would try Pisa. Any suggestions?  Tuesday night I got to go to the pool with Tine and Flemming, and I actually swam for 25 minutes. who knew I could do that. it was great, and I am excited to go back. It was also a very cultural experience that I hadn't really mentally prepared for. You enter the women's locker room, strip down to nothing, shower in a big room completely naked along with anyone else who might be there, in this case my host sister, and then put on your swimsuit and go to the pool. After the pool, you shower again completely naked. It was bizarre at first, but then when I realized that no one else felt the least bit uncomfortable, I began to enjoy the freedom a bit. It was not a big deal at all.   Wednesday night I packed quickly after a dinner of soup and sandwiches and I headed over to Lizzy's to stay before we left for our short study tour the next morning. We didn't do a whole lot besides talk and relax, which was exactly what I needed.

The next morning kicked off our study tour at 7:45 am... and I am going to elaborate on that adventure in the next entry! and I really promise I will load pictures!

Saturday night Continued!!!

I eventually went upstairs to watch the parent trap with the girls, and once that was over and Tine and I were sitting in my room looking at a Danish children's book, Ulrik and two of his friends cruise into my room wearing knee length pea coats, and Ulrik invites me to go out with them into København. By the way, it is now 12.30 am. but of course I can't turn my first opportunity to go out with a Dane down, so I say of course, and Tine helps me quickly throw on a cute skirt, her skinny jeans, and ballet flats. I met the boys in the kitchen and we headed out to the car. They immediately turned on very loud European techno (and don't worry, his friends hadn't been drinking at all) and started singing along. Then Shakira's world cup song came on, and they played it twice in a row. They love it! it was cracking me up. we got into copenhagen very quickly and parked one block away from my classes. then we went to a bar directly next to wear I take classes, and the streets were packed with people. It was so strange because it was so different than during the day. And I had no idea that my classes were located in one of the best areas in all of copenhagen to go out on the weekends. At the bar, the boys got me a beer, and Lizzy showed up to hang out with me. We only had to fend off a few guys, and Ulrik and his friends helped us feel right at home with all of the Danes. It was great, but eventually time to move on, so we went to a club, in fact, supposedly the nicest one in copenhagen. it had a swanky entrance and a fish tank and up the elevator, the club was entirely white: floors, chairs, tables, dance floor, etc. Ulrik's friends bought an expensive bottle of Vodka and stuff to mix it with, and it was actually pretty delicious but by this time of night, Lizzy, Ulrik, and I weren't really drinking except to taste it. we all decided to leave after a while, and it turned out to be around 5 am. I could not believe it at all. the streets were still packed with people! Ulrik went to sleep in his car while his friends went to another bar adn lizzy and I went to the trains station, where we slept on eachother's shoulders for 45 min waiting for the train. when the train pulled out from underground we were shocked and horrified to see that it was getting light out.  we went to her house and went to sleep as fast as possible, but not before 7 am.  Long night, and it was really a cool experience, but not one I need to repeat anytime soon. I don't really like giving myself jetlag.

I can't write more now, but sunday, monday and today have all been eventful, so I will try to write tomorrow and put up lots of pictures.

an extremely festive weekend!

The linguine with pears was a huge success, and we made corn on the cob and a great salad to go with it. Lizzy and I pretty much relaxed for the rest of the night and watched several sex and the city episodes.   The next morning, Laila baked tons of rolls, muffins, cinnamon rolls, and somehow secretly made a birthday cake too. and then in the early afternoon, we set off with 2 family friends for an old park with all these crazy old railway cars from around Europe, Egypt, and the US. the friends were a middle aged couple, the woman in black skinny jeans and crazy strappy 4 inch heels,  and her husband wore a purple polo with a yellow sweater. The drive was gorgeous, and when we got there we got to hop on one of the old trains and ride 3 minutes to the museum, where we got to wander around the warehouses and onto the trains to view how they used to look. all the people who work there work for free and spend about a year per train car on their renovations. It was really really cool actually, and once their other family friends arrived (with two young children who didn't speak english) we hopped on the train again and headed for a little ride into the woods to an area with picnic tables.  Once there, we drank some hot chocolate and elderflower juice, and ate homeade rolls with jam, blueberry muffins, and cinnamon snails as Tine calls them. They were my favorite, and as I have mentioned the hot chocolate here is unreal.  Unlike the U.S., they actually use real chocolate.
     The girls wanted to play a game so I whipped out my cloth bonnaroo frisbee and taught them how to throw it. then Tine made up a game where whoever had the frisbee would say a color, and then everyone would have to run and touch something that was that color. the first person to find that color would receive the frisbee pass and get to pick the next color. This was hysterical, since they had to teach me the Danish words for teh colors (which all sound the same by the way), so I was nearly always last to find the right color, and sometimes I would grab something that was the totally wrong color from the one that had been called! it was so funny, and the girls loved it. and I did win a few times, so I learned a little.  
    Eventually we headed back to the museum, where we got a private tour (none of which I could understand), and then Tine offered me their favorite licorice to try. awful! could barely finish it, i just licked it for  a while until finally everyone just watched me and told me to just put it in my mouth. I had no choice. It was really salty, which I didn't really enjoy.
    we went home after a while, and got home around 6, and I had a little free time while the other guests arrived and Laila ran around preparing all of the food and passing out appetizers, but she claimed not to need any help. I drank a tempt 2 while I waited, and it was delicious. at dinner, we had a delicious lasagne with great salad and tons of wine. ulrik and I had our own bottle of white chardonnay, and grown up end had about 5 bottles. there were around 15 people total. I had 2 or so glasses of wine, and then they insisted that I try some fancy italian red wine, so I did, and it was delicious. Then I had to try the dessert wine, and it was great too. the cake was also fabulous, a homeade strawberry cream cake with fresh berries on top. Ulrik finished our bottle of wine, and his dad brought us another one!!! the drinking culture here is much more relaxed. Also, we had been drinking this over the course of 3 or so hours. so I had another glass, and Ulrik had some more too. then we went down to the basement and drank a little more of the wine, and hung out with Jon and his cousin mark. mark was wearing a black t-shirt that said at the top "HUSTLER" and below that "Hardcore since 74" and then "PRISON" and below that was a sexy naked woman sitting facing forward with her feet apart and her knees pulled up, and she was so seductive I could barely stop staring at her in horror across the dinner table. Tine insisted that that is really popular right now and not weird at all, and her parents agreed.

Field Trips!

I have a feeling Wednesdays are going to be great because we don't have scheduled class, and instead, that time is reserved for field trips for my classes. Yesterday I had a field study with my Danish class, and we went to the Round Tower ( i posted a picture or two earlier) in medieval København. The Round Tower is part the Danish Lutheran Church, and a king built it so that he could ride up to the top on horseback. The floor spirals up and is covered in miniature old bricks. Because there really aren't any super tall buildings in Copenhagen, the view was excellent and filled with little red rooftops and steeples. we could even see the bay and the huge bridge to Sweden, with Sweden in the distance on the other side.  Also, the tower is pretty cool because a ton of very important people have been up it, including a Russian czar a long time ago. 
   After this adventure, we went to Roskilde to a huge cathedral where all of the Danish Royalty are buried. the interior is spectacular, and we got to see all of the tombs as well. The tombs are in rooms off to the sides of the main room in the church, and since they were each designed during the era they were needed, there is a really unique progression of art styles between the rooms, and this is also true for the structure of the church as it goes up vertically, because it took so long to build. The styles include baroque, neoclassical, gothic, victorian, and a few more. it was really cool to see. Once we left, everyone went home, and I headed back to our house as well to be welcomed by a little quiet time followed by a delicious leek bake of some type, with ham in the top and homeade crust along the bottom. It was once again fabulous. Then Laila and I drove out to the coast to walk out on this crazy peninsula for the sunset.
    It is basically a small treeless island that is attached to land by a narrow (8 feet wide) strip of land that is around 60-80 feet long. It also happens to be located in a cow pasture, and the cows were chilling right on the narrow isthmus so we got within five feet of mothers, babies, and bulls. the island has a steep hill when you reach it, and a beautiful grassy flat top, and then on the other side, it suddenly just drops off as cliffs for 40 or so feet straight down to the ocean.  It was certainly beautiful, and I will try to get some pictures up tomorrow. Laila and I also had an adventure that morning when we went to the gym together at the crack of dawn. That was a great way to start the day.
        This morning I headed in for my classes, and then began to look into my travel plans with some girls over our two week vacation in november. its hard to know for sure, but it looks like Greece, then Italy, and then hopefully Switzerland to hike a little. I am pretty excited!!  I looked into a new pair of awesome shoes today too but did not make any purchases, and otherwise went to class and managed to make it home before it got too late (my last class ends at 5.45, and I was able to get home by around 7).  We had homeade meatloaf for dinner, which was once again fabulous. I really don't eat much meat, so this has been a big change in my diet. but at least it is not processed meat, and she buys good local free range meat from her friends and neighbors, so I am glad that we are eating the good kind. Plus she makes it all from scratch, so its just fabulous.
    The rest of my evening hasn't consisted of much besides lots of reading about our cardiovascular system, but tomorrow should be great since I must grab Tine a little birthday present, and I am cooking dinner for the family. Linguine with pears in a gorgonzola parmesan sauce. I am quite excited, and Lizzy is coming for the night as well.
    

The Interior of the Cathedral, and my Danish teacher Nina on the left

Some houses near the Cathedral in Roskilde

The cathedral in Roskilde where all the Danish royalty are buried

The walk up the round tower

The View from the top of the round tower (with my Danish class)

The double rainbow I saw coming home from the cafe with my Danish Class

Some swans on one of the lakes in Copenhagen