Ain't never been to Spain- oh wait I just went!

I have been so lazy about blogging and I really have no good excuse besides the usual- I was busy line. But I have been busy as I went to Spain for a week, got back and then had to prepare for a Danish halloween party, and have fun with my fellow U of M students from the Netherland exchange that came up to visit.
Now that I made the obligatory sob story excuse, time for the much needed update:







Spain- what can I say about Spain that hasn't been said before? Apparently a lot since this was once of the coolest places I've been. Seriously, the place is set up to be easy as possible for tourists- the metro is great and inexpensive, there are signs everywhere, in short I loved Catalonia. The language is weird though- a strange mix of spanish and french it seems but I'm not quite sure. It didn't help that about 1/5 of the North American spanish words mean something completely different in Spain, and that Spaniards speak with that horrid lisp- it was good to dust off the spanish again though.



I loved Gaudi- SO much more talent than Dali- this is at Parc Guell


From a nook in La Sagrada Familia which is THE most impressive building in the world.


Resting on top of the Batilo House

Roof of Casa Batilo, weird gnomes used to dwell there.
(Danish tip of the day: Nissa is Danish for gnome, and it is pronounced Knee-sah)


The tree of life montage, YES I used montage!, on La Sagrada Familia


Me at the awesome and totally free water show that happens every friday and saturday night in front of the Catalan Parliament


Sagrada Familia Back Facade


Sagrada Familia Front Facade

So go to Spain and enjoy the siesta/manana attitude, good weather and warm, sandy beaches.

København

So last week I went to what we call Copenhagen to visit with a group of exchange students here at Aarhus Universitet. The group included: 9 Italians, 1 Dane, 1 French, 1 German, 1 Belarusian, 1 Chinese, 2 American and 1 Kingdom of Bhutan-ish student. Talk about an odd assortment. What I learned most was that Italians are consistently the latest people I have ever met. They have literally no concept of punctuality or time- and remember friends, this is me speaking! They are also really fun because it was non-stop goofing around so I am glad I was able to meet them.

Some interesting points to Copenhagen- 1. Copehagen tobacco is incidentally not at all Danish, nor is it even sold here I am told
2. Christiania is a dirty hippy sector that is more reminiscent of Jamaica than Europe
3. The statue of the Little Mermaid is extremely overrated



To get to Kobenhavn which is situated on an island from Aarhus you can take a Jet propulsion ferry, they are pretty sweet and pretty fast...these jets of water were about 50 feet high and 300 feet long..pretty impressive!



This used to be the whore part of town for old sailors but now it is the trendiest of streets because the bourgeosie have gentrified it and made it "quaint and cute"



My group in a shameless tourist pose....



A small Cherubim reminiscient of the pure soul of Spencer..........

Viborg

So Danish people have this really complicated dice game they like to play, and well what can I say, it's their form of poker and is entirely confusing but pretty fun. If you lose you get sent to Viborg (a danish city) and if you lose twice you get sent to hell. So you'd think there would be a reason for picking a specific city right? Like Viborg is crap or industrial or something to be hated. Nope. Ask any Dane why and they really have no explanation whatsoever. Many things are like that...for example: the danish word for "for example." It is "for example." Why? No one knows. Why are the christmas gnomes little arsonists that burn down your home at christmas if not fed porridge in the attic? Who knows...Why do they have a halloween type holiday where a cat is placed in a barrel and then the barrel is smashed like a pinata? Well actually that one has a simple answer: evil spirits in the cat. But then why do you have a holiday where you build a bonfire, in the summer mind you, to roast an artificial witch while singing carols? No one seems to know....but THESE are the things that I came here to learn- I'll keep you posted. In the meantime here is another postcard for you:


Women are evil and/or deadly....

Danish Findings

Ah Danish products, devoid of clever marketing logos, descriptive information and any hint of graphic design, yet still outrageously expensive. This "skum" is a popular word. I have found dairy skum, grooming skum, cleaning skum and even beauty supply skum. I think it means cream or something like cream.



So this is a sign that was at an aquarium I visited. I found it really funny because I think it may underemphasize the importance of not putting your hand in the shark pool by giving it a funny and quite happy cartoon look. I almost stuck my hand in just to see if sharks really do have a sneaky devious grin on their face right before they bite your hand off. Come to think of it I have seen a lot of funny signs here- the exit sign for example, it is an image of a stick figure man running toward a door-ish rectangle. Very literal and once again, not a hint of sleek graphic design, unlike this Japanime inspired danger sign.



This little postcard gave me hope though because it is quite funny and quite sleek, but then again the words are in English not Danish so maybe it was not designed here....but I like to think that it is Danish because 1- It is risque and 2- I found it on my apartment bulletin board. It brought me back to those days when I was Joey and Tom's neighbor!

Danmark

So apparently that is how Denmark is spelled here...it got me to thinking- Was it so hard to say "Danmark" that we had to change it to Denmark, or Spain instead of Espana or even Deustchland for that matter- who is the bum that decided to call it Germany instead...sure it was Germania but it was Germania before english had even been invented so what's the deal?! Anyways there are a lot more difficult Danish words than "Danmark" so I've come to learn during my month here so far...

It has been a good month, at first i was sad because i had literally zero friends and nothing to do and because I thought I had forgotten my camera cord and therefore could not blog pictures like I had planned. Then I made some friends and simultaneoulsy realized that my computer had a slot for picture cards. (Lest you mock, this IS my first computer I've ever owned) Denmark is a pretty relaxed country, the people are cool- a bit introverted - and very knowledgable about world politics, history and they speak amazing english so I am so happy about that because like I said, danish is literally the weirdest language I have ever heard. So if any of you out there would like to visit just let me know!