Looking back at some of my old feeds, I realized just how long this blog has been going on for and just how much has changed in the blog world since I started writing back in high school. So many bloggers have left while many have also come in and begun their own blogs and are sharing their stories with the world.
So many people who I had found so helpful, especially years ago when coming out was still an unspeakable thing in my mind, have stopped blogging. Bloggers like Dzyan, Jason Carwin, and many others who helped me in my development and maturation into the young adult I am now have unfortunately left the blogging world. Maybe they still follow many blogs and just no longer write, I don't know, but what I do want to say to all of them is: Thank You.
Even though many of you may never know how much you helped me and so many others by sharing your stories and life events, you should know that you really made a difference. As a 16 or 17 year old still trying to figure out the whole "gay thing" nearly four years ago now, I found great comfort in knowing there were others out there who were going through exactly what I was going through or had gone through it before. Whether it was just reading about their experiences or even going deeper and talking outside of the blog world, all of it helped to make my coming out experience that much better, and for that I'm grateful.
To everyone who is still in the blog world and I have had the pleasure of reading about, talking with, and getting to know these last few years, you too deserve just as big of a thanks. It's strange that through the power of the internet that such a strong community was formed. Granted, I have met nobody in person, yet I feel that I still know many of you. Reading your posts and comments is something I actually enjoy doing. It lets me escape for a brief time from the stress of school work and my daily routine and relax a little. I know I don't comment much, as least not as much as before, but I do check up on almost all the blogs I follow. I take the time to read what you have written not because I feel obligated to do so, but because I want to.
I really hope to keep this blog going for many years to come. If not for my own personal benefit, to chronicle the things that are going on in my life and to maybe one day look back on and reminisce about the crazy/funny/stupid/brilliant things I did, but also for the benefit of others. Maybe there is some high schooler who is quietly reading this blog today, scared to come out or accept who they are, but if I can make even the smallest impact and help them like so many current and ex-bloggers did for me through blogging, everything, all of the over 400 posts I've written so far, would be worth it.
All the best,
JP
Monday, September 17, 2012
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Tivoli, Coming Out to a Friend, and Trippy Jesus
The weather is getting colder and the amount of daylight is getting shorter, but that doesn't mean I haven't found plenty of things to do while here. The last has been pretty relaxed for the most part. I'm still not used to getting up at 6 for classes and probably never will quite honestly. Overall, the slower pace of school work here is a nice enough change from what I'm used to back home, but I don't know if I'm a fan of that quite yet. I've found myself to be stressed out when I don't have anything to do. Weird, I know.
Monday after my birthday dinner, I ended up going to Tivoli with some friends and my host family. The place is freaking beautiful, especially at night with all the lights on. It isn't like a theme park in the US where everything is focused on the rides, but instead the atmosphere and way everything is laid out is much more relaxing in a sense. There are gardens, restaurants everywhere, rides of course, carnival games, and a concert venue. My friends and I have dubbed Tivoli as Wonderland and The Happiest Place on Earth (sorry Disney) because it was that cool.
The rest of the week has been classes - pretty bland stuff quite honestly. Many of my business classes are still covering things I have already learned and are taught at a much less rigorous level than my home university. My Nordic Mythology class has also turned out to be rather boring, at least more than I expected it to be. The professor is cool, he's fun to listen to and would do great as a professor of a more interesting subject. Danish has been a little bit of a struggle still. Some of the sounds they make are actually impossible, I swear. I also have a bad problem of saying words with a German or French accent or actually using German words because that was the most recent language I took. The professor is very fun and laid back though so I'm not too worried.
Last night was one of the most fun nights since getting here. I went out with my friends Jackie and Kate first and ended up an Australian themed bar that was a combo pool hall, beer pong hall, and dance club. Cover was waived for us for whatever reason and the music they played was amazing. I stayed there and danced my ass off for hours. Afterwards, we walked around a bit and we stumbled upon what was the trippiest sight of my life. A church was holding a late Friday night "connect with Jesus" service where they lit up the place like a 70s disco and had a DJ playing weird mood techno music you'd expect to hear at some modern art exhibit. The statue of Jesus was all lit up and lights and patterns were projected on the ceiling. It kind of freaked me out honestly but it definitely was something I had never seen before anywhere.
Around 2, I ended up meeting with with some other friends at a different bar and we chilled there for a while before heading home. On the train back, we met a group of Danish guys who had studied abroad in the US during their high school years which I've noticed is becoming an increasingly common occurrence amoung Danes my age. One guy studied in Seattle for 10 months and only had good things to say about his experience. On the train ride back, I also ended up coming out to my close friend Amy who I met on my first day in Denmark. I think I had told her once in the past during a social for one of my classes but she thought I was kidding. It was actually kind of funny and we laughed about it afterwards. Continuing with the theme of all things gay, my friend Ben who also came back on the same train as us had a funny incident happen to him involving the LGBT group at the activities and club fair earlier in the semester. In Copenhagen there is a LGBT student group called BLUS which my friend thought was a Blues Music club. Well, he obviously didn't look very closely at the signs because when he got the email from HQ about upcoming LGBT themed events, he got the surprise of his life haha. He was a good sport about it though and laughed. I ended up coming home around 4:30 which is a record for me in terms of a night out.
Anyways, photo time:
My ipod is being a dick and not wanting to upload any photos I try to send off of it so pictures from the football game might be forever stuck on it unfortunately. I'll keep trying though since there were some pretty awesome shots on that thing.
All the best,
JP
Monday after my birthday dinner, I ended up going to Tivoli with some friends and my host family. The place is freaking beautiful, especially at night with all the lights on. It isn't like a theme park in the US where everything is focused on the rides, but instead the atmosphere and way everything is laid out is much more relaxing in a sense. There are gardens, restaurants everywhere, rides of course, carnival games, and a concert venue. My friends and I have dubbed Tivoli as Wonderland and The Happiest Place on Earth (sorry Disney) because it was that cool.
The rest of the week has been classes - pretty bland stuff quite honestly. Many of my business classes are still covering things I have already learned and are taught at a much less rigorous level than my home university. My Nordic Mythology class has also turned out to be rather boring, at least more than I expected it to be. The professor is cool, he's fun to listen to and would do great as a professor of a more interesting subject. Danish has been a little bit of a struggle still. Some of the sounds they make are actually impossible, I swear. I also have a bad problem of saying words with a German or French accent or actually using German words because that was the most recent language I took. The professor is very fun and laid back though so I'm not too worried.
Last night was one of the most fun nights since getting here. I went out with my friends Jackie and Kate first and ended up an Australian themed bar that was a combo pool hall, beer pong hall, and dance club. Cover was waived for us for whatever reason and the music they played was amazing. I stayed there and danced my ass off for hours. Afterwards, we walked around a bit and we stumbled upon what was the trippiest sight of my life. A church was holding a late Friday night "connect with Jesus" service where they lit up the place like a 70s disco and had a DJ playing weird mood techno music you'd expect to hear at some modern art exhibit. The statue of Jesus was all lit up and lights and patterns were projected on the ceiling. It kind of freaked me out honestly but it definitely was something I had never seen before anywhere.
Around 2, I ended up meeting with with some other friends at a different bar and we chilled there for a while before heading home. On the train back, we met a group of Danish guys who had studied abroad in the US during their high school years which I've noticed is becoming an increasingly common occurrence amoung Danes my age. One guy studied in Seattle for 10 months and only had good things to say about his experience. On the train ride back, I also ended up coming out to my close friend Amy who I met on my first day in Denmark. I think I had told her once in the past during a social for one of my classes but she thought I was kidding. It was actually kind of funny and we laughed about it afterwards. Continuing with the theme of all things gay, my friend Ben who also came back on the same train as us had a funny incident happen to him involving the LGBT group at the activities and club fair earlier in the semester. In Copenhagen there is a LGBT student group called BLUS which my friend thought was a Blues Music club. Well, he obviously didn't look very closely at the signs because when he got the email from HQ about upcoming LGBT themed events, he got the surprise of his life haha. He was a good sport about it though and laughed. I ended up coming home around 4:30 which is a record for me in terms of a night out.
Anyways, photo time:
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| Birthday Traditions - raising the Danish flag |
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| Sunrise over my hometown - Roskilde |
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| TIVOLI!!! |
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| Restaurants |
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| Chinese Pantomime Theatre |
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| Pirate Ship! - It's a restaurant/bar |
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| Trippy Jesus |
My ipod is being a dick and not wanting to upload any photos I try to send off of it so pictures from the football game might be forever stuck on it unfortunately. I'll keep trying though since there were some pretty awesome shots on that thing.
All the best,
JP
Monday, September 10, 2012
20 Years
Hooray, I made it through my teens without being cast on to a reality program showing up messed up I am! :D
Yup, I'm finally 20. It's not a particularly exciting birthday but what makes this day special is that this will be the first birthday that I've ever spent away from home. I do have my host family though and they are taking me out to dinner later and then we are going to Tivoli which is an amusement park in the middle of Copenhagen. I brought my camera since I've been told it looks amazing at night so expect some cool photos of that and from the football game I went to this weekend. The Danish national team ended up in a tie with the Czech team 0-0 in what was a pretty slow. defence oriented game. One of their best players, Nicklas Bendtner, was suspended for a game because of a stunt during the EuroCup when he flashed his non-authorized underwear.
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| I don't mind |
The crowd was awesome though and I think I finally at least sorta understand why people enjoy watching football games; it can actually get pretty exciting at times.
Anyways, 20, it's pretty cool if I may say so myself. I'm definitely looking forward to many birthdays to come :)
All the best,
JP
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Jutland
Just wrapped up my short study tour into Jutland/Western Denmark. I gotta say, it was really cool. We visited the corporate offices of a few major Danish companies and also hit up some more touristy sites along the way. We stayed at hostels most nights but from what I could tell, they were much nicer than I expected at least, but then again, I've never stayed in a hostel ever before.
Anyways, here are some photos from the trip.
Pretty cool stuff. I didn't expect studying abroad would be as interesting as this but I gotta say, I can really get used to this. Tonight I'm going to watch a football match in the city with my host dad. I think the Danish national team is playing tonight. It's going to be my first non-college live game so it looks like it will be really cool. I'm looking forward to this for sure.
I hope things are going well in your neck of the woods.
All the best,
JP
Anyways, here are some photos from the trip.
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| "The Ugly Duckling" - our lunch spot in Odense, DK, home of Hans Christian Andersen |
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| Danish Lunch |
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| Some weird statue which none of us could tell if it was a man or a woman |
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| Some pretty coastal town seen while riding on the double decker bus |
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| We might have made a brief trip into West Virginia at some point |
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| First Hostel: pretty cool |
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| We went canoeing after dinner (photo credit: my friend James) |
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| The art museum in Aarhus, DK |
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| You could actually walk inside the rainbow thing on top of the building |
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| The Jelling Stone - marks the "founding" of Denmark |
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| Back to Copenhagen for our final business visit - a Microbrewery (Photo credit: my friend Amy) |
Pretty cool stuff. I didn't expect studying abroad would be as interesting as this but I gotta say, I can really get used to this. Tonight I'm going to watch a football match in the city with my host dad. I think the Danish national team is playing tonight. It's going to be my first non-college live game so it looks like it will be really cool. I'm looking forward to this for sure.
I hope things are going well in your neck of the woods.
All the best,
JP
Sunday, September 2, 2012
My Guardian Angel and Going to Jutland
So I had quite possibly one of the most terrifying moments of my life Friday/Early Saturday morning. After a long night of drinking/bar hopping, I got on my train home thoroughly looking forward to crawling into my bed. Well, my ride takes a little bit of time and the last thing I remember is reaching the stop one before my station before unexpectedly falling asleep on the train. The next thing I knew, I woke up to my train pulling away from my stop and me frantically running to the door watching my town disappear into the distance. I got off at the next train hoping that I would catch a train going back the other way. There weren't any. After panicked pacing, I see a man standing on the platform on his phone. I walked up to him hoping he spoke English, and thankfully he did. Now considering this was at 3 in the morning in a little Danish town, the chances of this are next to nothing. What happened next boggled my mind even more. Apparently he had also missed his stop and needed to get back too. He called a cab for the both of us and even ended up paying for half of my cab fare. What makes this situation even more amazing is that since I had no smart phone and no information about where I was and what I should do, if that man was not there, I would have likely had to stay out there all night. While I never would have said this just a few weeks ago, I now swear guardian angels do exist, and mine takes the form of a bespectacled, well dressed, middle aged Danish man.
Moving on, tomorrow marks the beginning of my first short study tour as part of my core course week. Basically, I will only be "attending" my European Business Strategy class for the next school week. For this short study tour, My class will be travelling into Western Denmark towards the Jutland region to do some company visits. We'll be visiting a pharmaceutical company, a textile trade union, and a Danish sportswear company called Hummel. They have a small presence in the US, but a decent following in Europe and huge following in Denmark. The bus leaves from Copenhagen at 7:15 in the morning with our first meeting is scheduled for 8:30 in the morning. We'll be staying in hostels most nights and there are some planned events once visits are done including canoeing trips, bowling, and drinking around a campfire. Did I ever mention the Danes really like drinking? Yeah, just thought I should nail that point home one more time for good measure. It should be pretty cool though and I'm really looking forward to it.
So things are going pretty smoothly here in Denmark. It's slowly getting colder and the amount of daylight shorter, but things are still awesome and I'm starting to feel more and more integrated into Danish society.
All the best,
JP
Moving on, tomorrow marks the beginning of my first short study tour as part of my core course week. Basically, I will only be "attending" my European Business Strategy class for the next school week. For this short study tour, My class will be travelling into Western Denmark towards the Jutland region to do some company visits. We'll be visiting a pharmaceutical company, a textile trade union, and a Danish sportswear company called Hummel. They have a small presence in the US, but a decent following in Europe and huge following in Denmark. The bus leaves from Copenhagen at 7:15 in the morning with our first meeting is scheduled for 8:30 in the morning. We'll be staying in hostels most nights and there are some planned events once visits are done including canoeing trips, bowling, and drinking around a campfire. Did I ever mention the Danes really like drinking? Yeah, just thought I should nail that point home one more time for good measure. It should be pretty cool though and I'm really looking forward to it.
So things are going pretty smoothly here in Denmark. It's slowly getting colder and the amount of daylight shorter, but things are still awesome and I'm starting to feel more and more integrated into Danish society.
All the best,
JP
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