I am writing this in word currently, to be pasted into my actual blog later. Although wifi internet is easily obtained in The States, it is a different matter here, on the other side of the world. I left for my adventure last Friday, and today is Wednesday, but it feels like it has been years. Every country I’ve been to feels like a whole new world.
On Friday morning I left my home in Roslyn, Washington. I stopped on the way to say good bye to my family and drove with my boyfriend to Seattle. We stopped in Issaquah to get lunch and I ended up forgetting my wallet at the restraint, so we had to turn around on the freeway and retrieve it – lucky because had I not relived I had forgotten things would be much worse. We went to an electronics store and then straight to the airport. We parked the car and then said our goodbyes in the airport. It was extremely hard to part, and when we finally did part I felt like running back to him for one last hug.
I had a direct flight into Copenhagen, Denmark and most of the people on my flight were Danish. I have never been to Europe at all. I tried to sleep on the red eye flight, but my excitement did not let me. The sun never set because we followed it north. Not only was there light, but it was glaring very bright sunlight the whole way. SAS is the best airline company I have ever flown with. They had personal televisions at each seat with a remote that turned on its side to become a game controller. The meal was actually ordered correctly as vegetarian and was tasty, amazing for an airplane trip on both counts. It was a fairly long flight, about ten hours, but I made friends with the nice older lady that I sat with and our conversation made the flight go by quickly.
I arrived in Copenhagen and got through the security with no trouble at all. They looked at my passport, looked at me and then stamped it – without a word. From the first moment that I got my bags at the bag pickup I realized that I had packed way too much stuff. I had never actually carried all my bags myself too. I found a metro fairly quickly to take me downtown, which was right where my hostel was. It cost about $6 and took only a few minutes.
Dragging my bags from the central metro station to the hostel was torture. I couldn’t find my way and people weren’t that helpful. Every Dane is required to take five years of education in English Language and yet I would ask someone for help and they would reply, in perfect English mind you, “Sorry, I can’t help you because I don’t speak English.” People would stand in groups on the sidewalk and wouldn’t move for me even though I was carrying so much heavy luggage. I tried to weave my way through a group of Danish tourists and accidently bumped into a lady who yelled at me in Danish. I tried to walk away, saying I was sorry, but I guess she didn’t understand me because she followed me still screaming at me. After I escaped her I pulled out my map again and could not figure out where to go and couldn’t stand the thought of walking in circles with my bags. I couldn’t help it and I broke down into tears on the street from the stress of all of it and probably lack of sleep too. Then some other American tourists came to help and found where I needed to go for me. My hostel was only a few blocks from the station and it had taken me over an hour to find my way – later it would take only about five minutes.
The hostel ended up costing almost twice what I had expected. I had to pay to rent sheets and a towel, I had to buy a Hostelling International Card (required at my specific hostel) and the exchange rate had soured since I worked out my budget. Already my budget was blown.

Although the layover in Denmark saved me money, the cost of staying in Denmark for the layover more than compensated. Though, I wouldn’t give up the experience. I really love Denmark.
The first day I got my stuff to the hostel (Copenhagen Downtown through Hostelling International) and checked in, and then made my way to a concert venue. I am a big metal fan, so I saw Aborted while in Copenhagen. There was another opening band, but I can’t remember their name. The venue was a bar and seemed like an all ages show. I think the drinking age in Denmark is something like 18, but a lot of the people there seemed even younger than that. The walls of the venue had awesome brutal paintings and someone had puked on the floor and no one seemed to care to clean up the mess – so it definitely seemed a lot sketchier than other places I’ve been. The mosh pit was a lot more aggressive than in America – while in America people kind of passively push people around, here the people went into an absolute frenzy and where shoving, punching, kicking, and grabbing each other and picking each other up. I sat up stairs and drank coffee because I was so tired. There were no smoking signs, but people did anyway and no one seemed to care. It was a really good concert, but unfortunately I was too tired to enjoy it much.
Walking home after the concert I got completely lost, but I didn’t mind. I walked around in complete bliss and enjoyed the city. Copenhagen is so far north that it doesn’t get dark at night during the summer. All the buildings were lit up. It was a Saturday evening, so the streets were packed, even around midnight.
I ended up getting back to the hostel around 3am. The room was dark and I turned on a light just long enough to see that there were three new women in my room asleep. I panicked because all my stuff was missing (I had left it in the room by the door with locks on all my bags but taken my passport and wallet with me). It turns out that they had moved my stuff to another bed because they were together and wanted to share that part of the room. I don’t think this is kosher hostel etiquette. I ended up waking them all up getting to bed. I couldn’t sleep at all… I woke up around 6am ecstatic to see the city.
On the second day I took a train to Malmö, Sweden. The train costed about $35 and it took around 45 min to get there. The train ride was gorgeous. I got to see the water with many windmills in it. I had sort of gotten used to Denmark and I thought Sweden wouldn’t be all that different – but it was culture shock all over again. The language and currency was different and the people acted differently. The city was more vacant and had more modern buildings made of glass mostly. There weren’t tourists around and everything seemed different. I found my way to Malmöhus, which is the castle of Malmö. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. It is ancient, from around the year 1300 I think, and filled with so much interesting stuff. Admission was only a few dollars for students. They had a aquarium, reptile and small animal zoo, a modern art museum, a ancient art museum (including original portraits of the people who had lived in that castle), an exhibit on Nelson Mandela, an exhibit on the history of Sweden, an exhibit on the history of Malmöhus, a technology museum with all types of new and old technology, ect… truly amazing. Unfortunately, exhaustion kicked in and I had to go to sleep. I wish I had stayed longer. I went back to my room and slept early in the evening and then woke up early in the morning again.
The next day I decided to see the sights of Copenhagen. I went to this big tower and was able to see the whole city from there. Then I walked to a grocery store and brought some bread and cheese to the King’s Gardens for a picnic. I then took a boat tour which was only $17 on the advice of someone who worked at the hostel and it was definitely worth the money. The boat went through all the canals and we saw the little mermaid – granted, her backside only, but I don’t think that many people have seen that! All the postcards and pictures in books are of the front side, of course. I then went to Christiana and walked around, ending up at several McDonalds for internet access during the day.
My last day in Copenhagen I went to Tivoli and that was a very interesting (and expensive) experience. I went on a ride that was educational about Hans Christian Anderson, and that was really interesting. The rides were definitely not to US standards of safety. Many rides swung by buildings so that I could easily reach out and break my arm. I ate lunch and then rode some ride that went up side down and spun around, the whole works. After the ride stopped, some Danish kids chanted something in Danish and because no one was in line for the ride the conductor ran it again for us… this happened about six times in a row and when I finally escaped I lost my lunch and could barely walk. One of the rides was a roller coaster with a large portion of the ride in complete darkness – that adds a whole new element of terror.
After Tivoli I had to go back to the hostel to get my things and then take a train back to the airport. I was sad to leave Denmark.

Getting Ready

I am leaving for my trip the day after tomorrow. I am filled with a lot of mixed emotions on it, from being scared out of my mind and wishing I could cancel to being so excited I can't wait to get there. Overall the whole thing just seems too surreal to be actually happen and the closer the time gets to when I actually leave the harder it is to see it as actually happening.

Today is my last full day at home. Tomorrow I have a final exam for multi-variable calculus in the morning that I have a lot of pressure to do really well in and I have a going away party with my family in the evening. On Friday I am leaving home in the morning to make sure I get to Seattle by the afternoon, so that there is no way I will miss my evening departure. Today's the day I need to pack my things and get ready.

Getting myself mentally ready is the hardest part. I have to say goodbye to my boyfriend, whom I have not been apart with for more than a week since we met over a year and a half ago. My family has always been really close to me and there for me if anything happens. Not having those comforts there scares me.

This is why this trip is so important though, good or bad, I feel that this adventure will make me a better person. It is such a learning experiance, not just in the classes that I will take there, but in the whole experiance starting from applying to go, to working out all the logistics and actually going.

My Trip

I am studying abroad this summer with CIEE in St Petersburg, Russia. I am a student from Central Washington University majoring in Russian Language and Economics, as well as minoring in Mathematics. 

I leave Seattle on June 12 in the evening and arrive in Copenhagen, Denmark on June 13th in the afternoon. I am staying in a youth hostel with Hosteling International for four days in Copenhagen on my way to Russia. I am staying in the downtown hostel which is in an ideal location, or so I've been told. 

On June 16th I fly to Dusseldorf, Germany, where I have a layover of about 9 hours before continuing on to St Petersburg, Russia. I arrive in St Petersburg on June 17 around 11 am.

 There will be an orientation at the Park Inn Pulkovskaya in St Petersburg for the first two days and then I will be living with a host family in Smolni, a area just outside of the city. I will an excursion to Novgorod from July 4-5 and an excursion to Moscow July 31-August 2. 

The program ends on August 15. After the program I will be visiting my family through the 28th of August and then I fly home.