Stay Safe Guys

For everyone living along the East coast of the US, please stay safe during hurricane Sandy.

I've been hella busy the past few days and will be for the rest of the week. I've got a paper, a presentation, and a finance case all due some time during this week so I apologize for the delay for more interesting stuff on this blog. I'm also waiting for some of my friends to post pics from the trip so I'm trying to be patient with them as well.

Anyways, stay safe and find some way to pass the time while stuck indoors.

Drinking games are always fun ;)



Sandy appropriate music?

All the best,

JP

Sour Mood

To a certain someone: Sometimes I think I more tolerate you than am actually friends with you, and even more often you make even tolerating yourself very, very difficult. Here's a novel idea: keep your snarky ass comments to yourself and learn when to shut the eff up.

Jesus, some people...


Anyways, I got back from Budapest tonight and I gotta say, my trip to Vienna and Budapest was absolutely amazing. Recap and some photos coming up soon. I just wish my good mood wasn't spoiled this evening by some asshole who still can't figure out when they really just need to keep their opinions to themselves - hence the mini-rant at the start of this post.

Well, I'm exhausted so I'm off to bed.

JP

Traveling in Europe. Suggestions?

Soll ich nach Deutschland gehen, oder nicht? Das ist die Frage....

I'm leaving on my first official travel break this weekend. I'll be flying to Vienna, Austria Saturday morning with Jacqui and staying there for 3 days. Afterwards, we will be taking the train to Budapest, Hungary and staying there for 3 days before flying home. It looks like it will be lots of fun, especially since I have never been to those areas of Europe before. We'll be staying in hostels during the trip and doing the whole "wander around and find something cool" thing while in these cities so there's also a little bit of mystery in all of this. No matter what, I'm going to approach all of this with an open mind and see what this trip has to deal to me.

Now, back to my original question: Literally two weeks after I get back from Budapest, I have another week-long travel break which I have yet to work out. Some friends want to go to Madrid for the week, but I have some friends coming in to Copenhagen who I have to meet. Plus, I'm looking for more of a short break since I miss just being able to stay home and relax in the silence of an empty house. So, instead of going for an entire week, I'm considering going somewhere on my own for a few days and spending the rest back here in Denmark. Berlin is currently my top choice - I can currently get some very cheap flight to and from Berlin (about $80 round trip) and a very nice hotel for about $200 for 4 nights, leaving me plenty of extra for food and any shopping/sightseeing I want to do. But I still am not sure about anything. Does anyone have any suggestions for some relatively affordable places to go to in Europe?

I'm looking to do 11/10/12 until 11/14/12 which is a Saturday to Wednesday. Most of Europe is in their off-season so hotels are cheap in general and flying is decent on Easyjet and the like. My budget is around $400-$500 in total, flight, hotel, and food and such included.

A city where I can understand (or at least somewhat understand) what's going on would be preferable, though I'm open to anything. I speak French and English fluently and my German can get me by in a pinch.

So, any suggestions or even advice would be greatly appreciated.

Vielen Danke/Merci Mille Fois/Thanks a Bunch/Tusind Tak!

JP

Homesick

Well here's a flash of surprise for a change: I'm actually horribly homesick right now. Not so much homesick for my home home in Virginia, but homesick for my university.

I came to this realization a few days ago after realizing just how few shits some professors give here. It might sound strange, but I really miss the rigor, structure, and challenge of classes back at my home Uni. I miss having professors who are actually interested in teaching and want to help their students succeed. I miss being able to ask questions and expect a reasonably prompt response. I miss being pushed to my limits and having others around me feel the same way about the work we're doing.

I miss actual work and I miss being surrounded by people who care about work.

I also miss my campus. I miss being able to roll out of bed and be surrounded by other students. I miss having my little corners of campus where I can hide out and work by myself or with some close friends or just enjoy some coffee and listen to some music. I miss the gym, the classrooms, and the feeling of community. I even kinda miss the dining hall (even though it has gone to crap...again).

Don't get me wrong, I love Denmark. My host family is wonderful, the trip to their holiday home was brilliant, and meeting my host-grandma actually put one of the biggest smiles on my face since coming here, but I really, really want to fly back for some reason.

Not only do I miss my friends, but I also really miss Brandon. We haven't talked in a while but that whole summer really left an impact on me. I didn't expect that this would happen as forcefully as it has; it really came out of left field quite honestly. I just wonder if he's feeling the same way.

It's weird that of all times for homesickness to strike it would be now, nearly two months after arriving.




JP

Paris

Gather round children and you shall hear, of the story of my study tour in many photos so dear. Paris so grand and shiny she was, so we Danish students did did many French things, as one in Paris does as a Parisian does.

So we arrived last Monday and started off doing a bike tour like this

and saw lots of this

and we even decided to pose in a roundabout like this

then fancypants tour guide decided to do this

but I much preferred our hot Portuguese guide, so I snuck a photo like this

we rode around and saw this

and later we ate some of these.
(Photo credit Amy)

Later in the trip me and some of the guys went to this

and saw cars like this. It looked like an angry Cockatoo



And for not causing an international relations crisis, being the loud Americans we are,
we celebrated with drinks like this.

The last day we went to this little place

and saw this famous little lady

and that night we went to the oldest restaurant in Paris and ate food like this

 

And afterwards went up the Eiffel Tower to see Paris all lit up like this

and finally admired her beauty one last time before departing home to Copenhagen.
 (Photo credit James)

 

 What you didn't get to see was the tiny hotel rooms three of us had to share and the sometimes bland-sometimes interesting business visits we did, but who needs to know about that? I did get to use more French in that one week than I had in the previous now three years since I stopped taking French though. I did surprisingly well actually and really impressed myself. You also didn't get to see our 17-hour bur ride back home where I also got to play rough-translator when we stopped for lunch in Germany and I was the only one who had taken any German which was....fun/painful...I guess. The same ride also involved angry German women at rest stops, gummy bears, vending machine sex toys, and Rambo, not all together though. Anyways, now I'm home.

Unfortunately, I did get a little sick during the trip. It's most likely because one night we spent a night out in the rain and I ended up with a slight cold. In addition, I now also have a stomach bug which makes me wonder why my body is waging war on my now of all times. I'm hoping all things mend themselves soon enough. I think the medicine for my cold made my stomach flu symptoms worse and gave me some freaky dreams though so I can't wait until I'm done with that.

In the school world, classes are rolling along which I guess is the best way to put things. Nothing terribly interesting, nothing out of the ordinary. I did pretty well on my I-finance quiz though which makes me feel better about freaking about whether or not I should/want to be a finance major. I'll be getting back my other midterms soon enough. I do have a case in that class due next week which my group got a good chunk of done today, and I've been relatively on top of things so I'm not too frazzled.

 

This weekend I'm going to my heading down to my host family's summer/vacation home in Southern Denmark which should be pretty sweet. It's close to the German border so we're going on a light booze cruise before going to the house though. The week after that I actually have off from classes as part of a travel break (rough life, I know). So... my friend Jacqui and I will be traveling to Vienna, Austria and Budapest, Hungary over the course of that week. We've booked our hostels and flights to and from Denmark and just need to work out the train between the two cities now. It looks like it's going to be so awesome.

So yeah, that's life in Denmark right now. It's getting colder, I'm still being kept busy, and I'm still searching for my hot Danish man to bring home.

Just over two months until I head back to the USA....

Take it easy guys,

JP