My Life in Denmark

It's been a while so this is going to be quite the post today... 

The Boat Race: 

A small introduction on what I have guessed are the rules

It is a relay race located at the small lake in the middle of University Park. The first team member starts on one bank of the "lake" (more like a pond really - its about the length of an average sized swimming pool). They jump into an inflatable kayak and paddle to the opposite side, jump out as fast as possible, chug a bottle of beer, spin around 10 times while bending over holding the now emptied beer bottle on the ground, and then they jump back into the kayak, paddle across and then jump out into the water to hold the boat for the next teammate to start their round. There are six people on a team and at least one of them has to be a girl and each of the Friday Bars has a team (so it is according to faculty). They practice for weeks in advance (excellent entertainment for those of us who spent all spring break at the park) and take it very seriously. On the actual day of the race each team gets a small amount of time to put on some kind of skit to introduce their team and then they race in groups of two, the top two winning times then compete against each other for the championship. 

The Actual Event:

I woke up bright and early at 8 to meet Astrid and her housemates and find a place to sit. This proved to be a difficult task as the "good spots" had been taken the previous night by dedicated fans who camped out. We managed to find a spot on top of the hill where we could see one the lake, and only one of the sides. We enjoyed a nice brunch on the grass and then started drinking. Astrid's housemate made her own schnapps which were delicious and tasted like lemonade! By the time the actual event started at 2 there were an estimated 15,000 people crammed into the park. The games officially started with the Danish national anthem which was followed by a group of 10-15 guys who streaked around the lake and then jumped in and swam across.

Unfortunately we weren't able to see the skits before because of a large tree blocking our view but I've seen some pictures and heard a bit of it. The first one was the Lion King, complete with intense costumes and an epic battle scene. There was also a skit and some other ones just had dancers or something like that. The races went by fast but the winner was Economy which was cool because for the past five years Medicine has won. 

Skagen: The tipy-top of Denmark

Astrid, Colton, Michael and I went on a StudentHouse organized trip to Skagen on Sunday. There were about 70 students and two giant buses. The drive to Skagen took about 3 hours which isn't bad when you have a bus full of chatty students (and a bathroom on board). Our first stop was a giant mountain of sand. Everyone made fun of me because I was not impressed at all. We climbed up this giant hill of sand hoping to see a beautiful view of the ocean at the top, nope, it was just more sand. The picture below doesn't really do it much justice. The only cool thing about it is that because of the wind the entire hill actually moves about 3 meters per year. 

Our next stop was the Skagen Sand Church...oh boy, more sand! This really pathetic building is all that is left of the church built forever ago (I'm not good with dates, sorry). Apparently the rest of the church and courtyard were completely buried by the sand and this is all that is left. Ok, so far I wasn't Skagen's biggest fan... 

Thankfully our next stop was the Skagen Art Museum. Finally, something that doesn't have to do with sand! The museum was beautiful and filled with some really unique landscapes of Skagen. 

Then we went to the northern most part of Denmark. Its a beautiful beach that has a really rundown bunker on it from when the Germans occupied it. The walk to the tip seemed endless! But walking along the shore of the Baltic Sea was just beautiful. The end of the peninsula is literally 2 feet wide. There were a few sandbanks not too far off that a bunch of idiots decided to run to (No thanks - I don't want to have soaking wet jeans on a 3 hour drive home). It is really cool to actually see the North Sea and the Baltic sea collide. 

Thats about as far as I went in....

Birthday: "I'm 21...bitch"

I woke up to a multitude of facebook comments from wonderful friends as well as e-mails and e-cards, Luka even ichatted me when I woke up (3am his time!). I just enjoyed the day to myself, didn't do anything too exciting. Later in the afternoon I helped Colton make Gumbo which is always entertaining. I came home to Astrid and Tess making me a beautiful birthday dinner. A few of my good friends came over to help me celebrate and eat the feast that they had prepared: Tess, Tracey, Trine, Astrid, Colton, Brandon, Stephanie, Michael and Emil. 

I even got birthday presents! It was such an amazing dinner, I really feel blessed to have such awesome friends here that care enough about me after only knowing me a few months. After they literally shoved jell-o shots down my throat we decided to go downtown to celebrate more. Lets just leave it at that. Actually this picture pretty much sums up the later part of my night: 

How come no one told me to put my hands down, open my eyes, and to not stick my tongue out!? 

and P.S: for anyone who saw the video to Joel... it was a joke... in fact he was the one who started the "I'm 21 bitch" anyway.... so blame him! haha

LEGOLAND: a bus full of "kids" in their twenties invade a children's theme park

Yes, it was a little strange to have about 80 students unload out of a double decker bus and wait in line for Legoland to open while being surrounded by children (mainly between the ages of 1 and 7). Nevertheless, we did it, and we were all so excited. 

The first part of the park was called miniland and was devoted to very small replicates of landmarks around the world. They were all amazing! So much attention to detail it blew my mind. 

a very small Billund airport (literally next door to the park) with moving airplanes!

LA of course (with no SF I figured this would have to suffice)

There were a few rides too. The first one we went on we all literally had to squeeze into. Basically legoland made me feel like a giant it was strange. It also really made me miss Disneyland. No amusement park can compete with Disneyland in my eye. It was so weird to me to see dogs in the park too - not seeing eye dogs either, just regular dogs on leashes. Overall it was a great day though! It's nice to let your inner child out and just be silly. 

Oh yeah, and there was an entire section based on Star Wars!!! I even bought myself a little stormtrooper keychain which is now my current obsession. 

And now I wait for mama to come!! It's unreal to me that she's actually going to be in Denmark tomorrow! I'm so excited that I get to share my world over here with her. So another blog will come after her departure (while I procrastinate studying for my finals...wahhh)