School's Out

So, with the exception of my exam, I'm done school here at RUC. Which makes me happy. I'm glad I never have to do another group project again. Also that I'll never have to look at the Satanic Verses again either. I'm torching my copy after my exam. Anyway for now I'm rejoicing in sweet freedom!

So Friday we had a party here in Korallen. I thought it'd be huge as everyone's finished their projects and would be in the mood to celebrate. It ended up being the smallest Korallen party I've been to. We averaged about 20 people. It was barnyard themed, hence my hair. It was still a lot of fun. Also random at points but fun all in all.

Saturday was the offical beginning of the Carnivale festival in Copenhagen so I went in, hungover and none too happy at being up before noon after the party the night before, to see the parade. It was pretty cool. It's also been a long time since the last parade I saw so I was pretty excited. There were two adorable babies standing next to us. One had a habit of dancing everytime the music got really loud. It was so cute!

Thankfully the sun had finally come back, the last week has been raining, so a couple of days ago I went for a wander. In the woods. Well what passes for woods around here. Where I went was about as big as the woods behind our house. Yeah. That size. It was good though. I climbed a tree. Sort of. More of climbed up a slanting log. Sadly my shoes don't have good grip so I didn't get very high.

Well that's it for now. My group's having a dinner next week. Large amounts of alcohol are going to be involved now that we don't need to worry about the stupid project. Tivoli's been postponed until sometime in mid-June. And I've created a list of places I'm going ot visit in Venice and Rome. I think I'm going to spend an entire day in Rome just visiting museums. I have a huge list of ones I want to see. So yep. That's about all that's new with me. I'll update later when something interesting happens.

Travel Plans

So I've decided, and booked everything already, that I'm going to visit Stockholm, Venice and Rome at the end of June. I'm pretty much bouncing up and down like a five year old right now. Venice and Rome were on my list of top 3 places I wanted to go, so I'm ridiculously excited. I'm pretty sure most of Rome is going to be me visiting historical sites and Museums. Because I am a Classics nerd. It'll be fun though! And I found out flying out of Stockholm is way cheaper than flying out of Billund. One way to Billund by train costs the same as there and back to Stockholm by bus. And I can get more flights, via Ryanair as it's by far the cheapest, flying out of Stockholm. I wished I'd known sooner. Oh well. And I'll get a chance to visit Sweden! Ehee! I'm just so excited right now I can barely sit still. Sadly I still have a month to wait. Ah well, it'll pass quickly.

This and That

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been busy working on my group project. Which coincidentally is slowly driving me towards insanity. I hate the Satanic Verses and am actually contemplating burning the book after this is over. Mere words cannot accurately describe how much I loathe this book. On the plus side we're almost done. It's due on Tuesday and then I don't have to think about it for 2 weeks. On June 18th is my exam and then I am done. Our exam is early cause Tia's rented a house with friends in the South of France. I'm kind of jealous.

As for what else I've been doing...Well the swans that hang out in the pond on campus had babies so I went down one afternoon and fed them. The babies are just the cutest! It was a lot of fun. Right up until one of the adults tried to bite my toes. Apparently I wasn't throwing the bread fast enough. They're as nasty as Canadian Geese. But the babies are adorable. And one of the adults will eat right from your hand. Of course it'll hiss and bite at you while doing so, but still, it's kind of cool.

I've been in Copenhagen a lot recently. All the rest of my group members live there, except Oly but she's up there with her boyfriend half the time so yeah. Today I discovered something. It's pretty much impossible for me to get lost in downtown Copenhagen. It's the second time I've tried to get lost after a group meeting. I figured wandering around the city would be cool. I keep ending right back up at one of the train stations. Today I walked from Kobenhavn H station to Norreport station. It was fun. I also started souvenir shopping. Today I went into 4 different souvenir shops. Surprsingly they don't all have the same stuff. A lot of the stuff is the same but each one had at least a few different things. Also if they can put a mermaid on it, it's sold in a souvenir store. Honestly I have never seen that much mermaid stuff in my life. There's also a lot of viking stuff and trolls. And yes, I mean those little doll things. I don't know if they were invented here or what but every souvenir store has baout 20 different kinds. No lego though. Lego's only in the toy stores. Which all have at least one cool ginat lego thing which is awesome.

Oh yeah! There's this awesome board game store in Copenhagen. I swear it has every board game ever created. I saw one version of Risk called Godstorm. I told my friend Merran from Bishop's, who's on the Classics Society board, and we're thinking of buying it for the Classics society. It sounds way too awesome. When I got excited about it, and was sad when it was way too heavy to feasibly bring back with me, I realized how much of a Classics nerd I really am. It took being a semester away from it to realize I really do love my major.

Here's some random pictures I took of the swans and around Copenhagen. Oly and me are planning on taking a canal tour so I'll eventually have pictures of that. Also I plan on visiting the castle sometime because it's not right not to. Not since the Danes have their own royal family. Anyway that's all for now. The plans for Tivoli have been pushed back to the end of the month when Oly's sister comes to visit her, and I'm planing a trip somewhere for the next couple of weeks so I'll let you know what's happening with all of that once I know myself.

May 1st Festival

In Denmark, May 1st is Worker's Day. Apparently this means everyone goes to a park and hangs out together. So that's what we did. It was a lot of fun.
So I met up with Oly and Pip then we headed to Christiania. It was my first time there. I'm really going to have to go back. It's a really cool place. Sadly you're not allowed to take pictures inside. Almost all of the building have some kind of cool painting on the sides and there are all sorts of people in there. We met up with Sanne there and then headed back into Copenhagen to go to the park.
You didn't even need directions. You just followed the huge crowds of people. The front entrance to the park had a fair in it. I won a chick there. I named him Fluffermonster. He's sitting up with my Travel Bear and Good Luck Frog. I'm getting quite the stuffed animal collection.
There were all sorts of booths selling beer, popcicles, kebabs, hot dogs, pretty much everything you can imagine. We brought sandwiches and cookies and drinks and stuff with us. I tried this Pear Cider stuff. I am now in love with it. It's way better than beer. It's just a bit sweet. I'm thinking of bringing some back with me.
We ended up sitting at the far end of the area where the stages were. None of us were really interested in the bands or the political speeches. It doesn't help that said speeches were in Danish. There were more people than live in the whole of Brockville I think. Oly, Pip and Sanne were laughing at me for being so impressed. They told me that the Roskilde Festival is going to be way bigger. I cannot even imagine this.
The Festival was fun, despite me getting sunburned. It's only a mild one so I'm not so bothered. And the number of random things we saw...Well it was different for sure. The guy who was wandering around naked, the guy wearing a red dragon costume, the girl who came up to us asking if we spoke English and then, finding that we did, asking us where the Anti-Fascist people were meeting and of course who can forget the people with the Free Hug signs.
It's actually the Free Hug people's fault that we lost Sanne. She ran off to go get a free hug and never came back. We waited 4 hours. We wouldn't have waited so long if she hadn't left her purse and her phone with us. I have no idea where she went but I know she met up with Oly today to get her stuff back.
The whole thing was basically a giant, drunken (the Danes love their booze), picnic. We left at 8pm. The sun was still out but it was getting cold and we were out of actual food. That and Oly was craving the Kebab from near Pip's apartment. So I said goodbye to Oly and Pip after they left me at a bus stop that would take me right to one of the trains stations I know. 12 buses later, only 2 actually stopped since they were all full, I gave up on waiting for a bus and walked. I actually found my way straight to Norreport station. I was thouroughly impressed with myself for this feat. So I got home at 9:30pm. The sun had only just set.
So that was my adventures at the May 1st Festival. In 2 weeks we're planning on going to Tivoli and to Malmo in Sweden so I'll have lots of stuff to write about then! Bye for now

Copenhagen Zoo

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Me, Jess and Katelynn went to the Copenhagen zoo today. It was beautiful out, sunny and 18. I think I got a bit of a tan. The best part about going to the zoo in April is that a lot of the animals have babies. I honestly thought I was going to have a cuteness overload.
The very first exhibit you see after walking in is the lions. And they had cubs. Both half-grown and little babies. They were all asleep initially but later they woke up and were wandering around. They were so cute I wanted to steal one!
Next we saw the monkeys. Who also had babies. You should have seen them running around! One of the babies got in a fight with one of the older, but still juvenile, monkeys. It lost. We were there when they got fed. For some strange reason they gave the monkeys food in a container. One monkey ripped it right open. Then one of the mother monkeys stole it from him. It was pretty funny to watch.
Then there were the penguins! If we'd really wanted to we could have just reached in and picked up one of the penguins, the enclosure was that low. It wouldn't have even been hard. A lot of the enclosures were like that which was really cool. You could get really close to the animals.
The wolf enclosure reminded me of home. Sadly they didn't have any babies that we could see.
At the bear exhibit there were two little cubs who kept play fighting. It was adorable. The mom just sort of ignored them and did her own thing. The male was kept separate. He didn't seem to like that too much...
They had the sweetest elephant exhibit! It was huge. There was also a baby elephant. And one of the elephants, for some unknown reason, decided to climb up onto this little stool thing. Nearly shoved the baby right over. She was a bit of a jerk.
Possibly one of the cutest things I've ever seen in my life was at the zoo. Baby otters! Otters are adorable by themselves. Baby ottters? I almost had a cuteness overload right there! They were so tiny and made the cutest little squeaking noise. I think I should get a pet otter. We already have a pool, we're set.
We were actually at the zoo in time to watch the sea lions get fed. They did all sorts of tricks. One rolled over, another did a black flip out of the water, and another one balanced a ball on its nose. It was really cool.
We saw an okapi there. Okapis have got to be the wierdest looking animal ever. Weirder even than platypuses. They're like the bastard offspring of a giraffe, zebra and tapir. And tapirs are freaking weird looking themselves!
We were a little saddened that the giraffes weren't out in the field. It was kind of hard to see them. But there was a baby giraffe!
The zebras also had a baby. Also while we were there some of the zoo keepers were herding the zebras around. We were thinking they might be trying to teach them tricks or something. Who knows.
The last thing we really did, because the zoo closed, stupid 5pm closing time, was go to the petting zoo. They had baby goats. One of the babies kept trying to suckle on my fingers. Which was fine until he decided to use his side teeth to try and bite me. That was not cool. We tried to go see the hippos but the zoo closed. It stays open until 9pm starting in June and next month it stays open until 6pm. We're already planning to go again. But after Tivoli. The new ride there opens this Friday so we'll probably go next week or the week after. I'm beyond excited!
Oh. And that one picture of the road? That's a picture taken from my room. Guess what time I took it? If you guessed 4pm, you'd be wrong. It took it at 7pm. 2 weeks ago. And it's still only April. June is going to be...interesting.

Random Stuff

So here's the latest report from Denmark, the only place I've ever been where you have to check the weather report for wind. All year round. That's no lie. Tuesday it was going to go up to 15 and was sunny, so I put on a tank top. Then I checked the wind. Nearly 30 km/h. I grabbed a sweater. I needed said sweater. Today was also 15 and sunny. However the wind was only 9 km/h. I got too hot. Best part is, there are people wandering around in jackets in this weather. Not too long ago I wore a tank top. Apparently this was noticed. Katelynn had been told of someone walking around campus in a tank top and laughed when she found out it was me. It was 15! There were people in winter jackets! I don't get this. *Sigh* I'm such a Canadian.
Not too much is exciting here really. The sheer amound of sunlight has taken some getting used to. It's almost nine and the sun had yet to set completely. 8pm it's still sunny. I never have any idea what time it is because of this. The best part is that the days are only getting longer.
I've been going to Copenhagen a lot. It helps Oly's there for a good portion of every week so she meets me at the station. This is how I have yet to get lost in Copenhagen. I know the day I go by myself, I'll be lost for at least an hour. I'm actually heading in again tomorrow for a group meeting. It'll be fun. Our supervisor was shocked I hadn't yet gone to the Black Diamond, which is where we're meeting. Apparently it's one of the places you have to go in Denmark if you're a student.
Tuesday was Ben and Jerry's free cone day. I love ice cream. It made me happy. I also got a bunch of shopping done while I was in Copenhagen. Finally got a new charger for my IPod, since the one I bought with me decided to fall to pieces. Literally. And since my speakers just randomly died one day. I'm kind of pissed about that actually. That and I can't find my extra set of headphones. They're neon pink! They shouldn't be so hard to find. Ah well. I'll just have to buy a new pair when I'm in Copenhagen tomorrow. The ones I'm using know are on their last legs. Only one side works unless I get the cord and jack in the exact right position. This saddens me.
I went to the Undersea party which was a lot of fun. I ended up wearing my blanket as a toga. I am awesome pro at tying togas. I said I was an Oceanid or Amphitre depending on when you asked me. Yes. I am a Classics nerd. I was forced to take off my toga eventually as it's fleece and it was way too hot. That's when I said I was a sea anemome AKA I was dressed all in blue. One guy had this awesome King Trident costume. Full robe, crown, arm bands and trident. It was freaking sweet! I was only sad no one came dressed as Aquaman. If I'd had the right clothes I would totally have dressed up as him.
Oh and the reason I took a picture of that can is because every time I see it, Oly has a poster in her room and I see the cans around, I keep thinking it says Kylie. I'm totally bringing her back can.
Well that's all for now. Mostly I wrote this because Mom's been nagging. If I'm not careful she'll find some way to poke me from across the Atlantic. Just kidding Mom, I love you.

Belarus

So here's, and I'm sure Mom's saying "finally", my post of my adventures in Belarus.
I got off the plane and got through customs no problem. In fact the only problem that happened at the airport was me not being able to find mom immediately. We came in at different gates and I couldn't find the gate 4 of the arrivals. Luckily Rhona found me. Pat was not so lucky however. He got left behind at the airport.
We got to Chaussy and we had dinner at the orphanage. I was smart. I refused to do any of the many shots of vodka offered to me. There were a lot of toasts and it was fun. Afterwards me and mom went to Kaminka and I got to see Dziana and Veronique again and meet their mother Tanya and their cousin Angelina. Veronique has gotten huge. She's about 2 inches short of my height. I think she might be able to give Kylie a decent fight for the title of Queen Wookie.
The next day I got to see the Chaussy One school where all the boxes were. The mountains of boxes. We started organizing them. Man did my arms hurt the next day. It was kind of fun though. And afterwards the whole gym became like a maze. I kind of wish there's been some kids around to play hide and seek with. It would have been awesome!
That night we went to his cafe place for a bit. They finally got me to do a shot of vodka. Never again. I hate straight alcohol. Unless it's awesomely flavoured. Vodka is not. And I'm sad to say I got buzzed off that one shot. I am the hugest light-weight ever. Oh well. On the plus side, mom now has a picture of me doing my first shot of vodka. A proud moment for any mother to see.
One of coolest things we got to do was go see older Veronique and her 2 month old baby Kiera. Kiera is adorable! Also probably the most active baby I've ever seen. I don't think she stopped moving the entire time we were there. Mom got these adorable little slippers for her too. Ehee! So cute!
That night me, Veronique and Angelina went out for a wander around Kaminka. We had a lot of fun with my camera. They quite enjoyed being able to see the pictures as soon as I'd taken them. We took a lot of really random ones. I also met most of Veronique's friends. And I got to tease her about boys. It was a lot of fun. We also got into her school so Veronique showed me some of her classrooms. She got us in despite it being Sunday, 8pm and their blatantly being a security guard at the door. He didn't really seem to care though. I was impressed nonetheless.
The next morning I got to go on a delivery that was probably the most fun for me. We delivered boxes of toys, supplies and quilts to this daycare centre. There were only 3 students there. They had a lot of fun going through all the toys. The boy was very serious though. He smiled once when I gave him a candy. The 3 of them were adorable though. The older girl helped us sort through the toys. After we that we went into Mogilev and bought the daycare centre a new fridge since none of theirs really worked. I have never seen someone as happy as the woman who ran the daycare centre was. She did point out something that we found rather interesting. She was saying how she couldn't believe how people like us would just walk in somewhere and buy them a new fridge. We all had to wonder if perhaps we're strange for doing this.
That afternoon I got to meet 2 more cousins of Veronique and Dziana, Violetta and Valaria, as well as their Aunt Natasha. They had some of the longest braids I have ever seen. I'm also pretty sure they thought I was a little insane. So me, Veronique, Angelina, Violetta and Valaria went on a walk along with our fearless protector, Mishal. The dog. He followed us the whole time. He even waited outside when we went to their grandparents. We had a snowball fight, and then at their grandfather's, one of the younger two, I never really learned which one was which, played with my camera. She had a lot of fun taking pictures.
I have to say, Tanya is an amazing cook. Everything was delicious. And I think mom was happy because she actually got to witness me consuming vegetables. I was asked about it repeatedly. I am going to buy some more celery tomorrow and take lots of pictures of me eating it. Then send them to mom. That's what you get for bugging me about it Mom.
Now one story I have to tell is that of the banya. I had no idea what to expect. So me, mom and Tanya all strip right down and go into this sauna-like thing. Then I get to watch as Tanya whacks mom with birch leaves dipped in water. Mom seemed to enjoy it, I think because she was able to get warm. Then it was my turn to get whacked. Man those leaves are hot! I couldn't stay up there as long as mom as it was too hot. Afterwards we washed ourselves out of these bucket-bowl things. Tanya apparently believes me and mom are her children as she insisted on washing us herself. That was...unexpected. I'll admit to being a little surprised at first but I went along with it, no problem.
Oh and the one last thing that was...different about my visit. So on the way to the airport, Sasha, my driver, suddenly pulls over. I thought he was going for a smoke break. I was wrong. We got pulled over by a cop. I had no idea what was going on and for a little while got kind of worried. Especially since the whole thing took like half an hour. Everything turned out fine and we were on our way again. And the very first thing I did when I got back here to Korallen? I took a shower. I washed myself head to toe twice. Sadly, I still smelled like farm. But I got to see a baby bull. And his cuteness made up for any smell that lingered.
Anyway that's an account of my adventures in Belarus. I am back in Denmark and enjoying myself. I'll put up another post about what's been going on here in the next couple of days. Until then, bye!