Contrary to popular belief, I was not abducted by a group of angry Vikings nor did I join a traveling ABBA tribute band. Rather, I have been out and about, "taking Denmark," if you will, which is why I have neglected my blogging duties as of late. Hopefully this post will make up for my absence. I am going to begin by discussing my recent adventure to Stockholm, Sweden before moving onto my lovely visit from two fellow sisters of Chi Omega, and will wrap up with a few fun facts about my day as well as details of my pending travel break. So here we go. 


Last weekend, Amanda, Dan, Daniel (dorm friends), two of their friends (Court and Michael), Brooke, Sarah, and Mary from CMM, and Sophie (Brooke's roommie who happens to go to Trinity ... i.e., every time I see her I get the incredible urge to scream out, "Remember the Alamo!!!," "Viva Fiesta!", so on and so forth). Amanda, Michael and I were the first to arrive in Stockholm and therefore decided to explore the city a bit before heading to the lovely Hotel Satra. As it turns out, Satra was a bit different than we had imagined. I had a feeling things were going to get interesting when we discovered that the hotel occupied only one floor of a building and was situated on top of a hospital of some sort on the same premises as the Satra train station. And I had a feeling thins were going to get interesting when the reception desk was closed upon our arrival (i.e., no one was there to give us our key). And I knew for certain that something was not quite right when another hotel resident got our key for us from a clearly very high security "lock box." In hindsight, I realize I probably did not show due thankfulness to our fellow hotel-dweller for taking the time to find us our key, seeing as the day of our arrival, he was actually busy moving into Hotel Satra permanently at the recommendation of his social worker.


Needless to say, we were somewhat eager to venture beyond the just-missed-clean beige walls of Satra, so Sara, Mary, Sophie, Brooke, and I went to the Photography Museum where we had a lovely dinner and attended  the opening of an exhibit by "portrait" artist Nick Brandt. I put "portrait" in quotations because that is a self-proclaimed title in response to his audience's tendency to label him as a landscape artist. Brandt takes incredible photographs of African jungle animals that seem to have been shot from an impossibly close proximity. Brandt says that what makes him a portrait artist is the fact that he captures his subjects' spirits the same way he would were he photographing humans. A portion of his artist statement can be read below: 


"Aside from using certain absurdly impractical techniques, I do one thing that I believe makes a big difference : I get very, very close to the animals. I don’t use telephoto lenses, as I want to see as much of the sky and landscape as possible – to see the animals within the context of their environment. That way, the photos become about the atmosphere of the place as well as the animals."

After dinner, we went to the Ice Bar, which was rather interesting and only caused me mild physical discomfort. It will, however, be good preparation should I ever decide to move to Antarctica. After this, we stumbled upon a rather swanky looking Swedish club and somehow managed to weasel our way in (NOTE: by "somehow," I mean we stupidly paid over 200 Swedish Kroner to be allowed entrance). However, it was quite an experience and we danced the night away with a plethora of ridiculously well-dressed young Swedes. It was a somewhat surreal experience, made all the more interesting by a pair of silver sequin stilettos, a lot of black leather, and what appeared to be a back piercing. But to each his (her) own. 


After a lovely night out, we needed a good night's sleep in order to be ready for more adventures. The next day, the same group of girls and I went to the old town for breakfast before going to the Nobel Museum, the Royal Palace, and some other historically significant sites. The Nobel Museum was my favorite and solidified my hope to one day be granted the Nobel Peace Prize in either Economics or Science. In the afternoon, Michael met us for a canal tour, which was a terrible idea seeing as said tours only run March - September. So we spent the rest of the day meandering about, going to the Vasa Museum where we saw a really old ship that had been excavated after 300 years under the sea (fascinating, I know)  and ultimately met up with the rest of the group at the Modern Museum where there was a special exhibit on Monet, Turner, and Twombly, a quite interesting combination in my opinion. Despite the fact that I am (at least for the time being) an Art History minor (NOTE: if I hope to earn my college diploma in less than 12 years, I will have to reconsider said minor...) I had never heard of Twombly but I really enjoyed his work. Here is a sample ...

That evening, we went to dinner before the boys and I attempted unsuccessfully to get into the one and only casino in the city of Stockholm. But that is another story entirely. Sunday, we went to the Globe (a location uncannily similar to the London Eye) before heading back to Old Town for a bit and ultimately making our way to the airport where I enjoyed a lovely pre-packaged Greek meal. 

On Monday, Kate and Gillis came to visit from Aix en Provence by way of Istanbul, Turkey. It was lovely to have them!!!! I was volunteering at Mellemrummet Cafe (the cafe below our building that is part of Actionaid Denmark, i.e., the nonprofit behind our building) for a few hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, but Tuesday evening we were treated to a lovely homemade meal by some Vandy boys before Kate and Gillis were able to indulge in the remarkable experience that is Kulor Bar. Wednesday evening, we had dinner and did a bit of shopping and spent a significant amount of time sampling dried fruit at the market. 

Nothing incredibly significant happened at school today so despite the fact that I said that I would share with you the details of my day, it seems that I do not really have anything to share. My bike basket was stolen approximately 2.5 days ago, but that does not really have a whole lot to do with anything and is actually quite irrelevant to the rest of this post. Therefore, I will not discuss the matter any further. 

An exciting weekend is looming, though, that includes but is not limited to the following: Halloween, Sensation White, and TRAVEL BREAK. I leave Monday for Dublin, then will be heading to Paris, Aix en Provence, and finally Edinburgh. Then Fay and Alan will arrive in the Cope on the following Monday. So, all in all, I have quite a bit to look forward to and I hope that you will enjoy the details of my upcoming endeavors. 

Farvel!


Ord af dagen: tåge = fog (As in, "There was so much tåge this morning that I thought I had somehow descended into Hell.")

Hello, all. I am pleased to announce that the time has come for me to share with you, 'Adventures in London, Part Deux.' Now, I know I promised not to do anything that is any way noteworthy until I have commenced telling my London tales, but I feel that it is important that I provide you details of my present situation, as it is, in my opinion, 'blog worthy' so to speak. I am sitting in the library of my visiting sisters' school as I compose this entry, as the elder two, Chanella (12) and Sofia (9), have invited me to speak to their respective English classes today. I assume you are wondering if such invitations were extended, why it is that I am sitting in the library blogging. To answer said question, no, I am not attempting to assimilate with the 5 to 15 year old students, as, considering the height of Danish elementary and middle schoolers, I already fit in quite well. In fact, I would be flattering myself to  say that my stature places me anywhere but the 5th to 12th percentile of height amongst said students. And no, I am not in the library because I wish to check out a copy of 'Tiden med en Teenager,' ('Time with a Teenager'), although a tantalizing read it appears to be. In actuality, my reason for being in the library, not to disappoint, is as such: Chanella's class ended at 10 and Sofia's does not begin until 11:45. Anticlimactic, I know. But anywho ... Going to Chanella's class was so much fun. Her peers asked me a wide range of questions from, 'What is your favorite color?' to 'What is your school like?' to 'What is your favorite soccer team?' an inquiry for which, to no one's surprise, I had a brilliant response. Other noteworthy inquiries included, 'Do you know Justin Bieber?' 'Are there sandstorms in Texas?' and 'Does America have running wanter?' The kids were all so nice and I was extremely impressed with their English. Speaking of English ... I am aware that this introductory paragraph was a bit of a digression, seeing as the intended purpose of this post is to provide details of my 3rd and 4th days in London. So I will do that for you now. Here we go ...


On Wednesday morning, we all had the choice of attending either Saatchi Gallery, a contemporary art gallery, or the Imperial War Museum. Not too surprisingly, most of us opted to visit the former, although three braves souls did choose to accompany our teacher, Niels, to the war museum, which they said was actually quite fascinating. The Saatchi is located in Chelsea and opened in 2008 as a free museum, aiming both 'to bring contemporary art to the widest audience possible' and 'to provide an innovative forum for contemporary art, presenting work by largely unseen young artists or by international artists whose work has been rarely or never exhibited in the UK,' so says their website. The architecture of the museum itself was really great, as were most of the exhibitions inside. I say 'most' solely because there were a few that I would be lying were I to claim to have understood completely. But overall, I thought the gallery had a great collection and I really enjoyed our time there. [See images of exhibitions below.]

After leaving the gallery, three other girls and I walked to Harrod's for lunch. Whilst  on said walk, I became certain that I want to live in London, a decision I insist was made completely independent of the many clothing stores we passed en route to our destination. 


Needless to say, arriving at Harrod's was like a breath of fresh air, primarily because I splurged on a green tea cup that says, of all things, 'Harrod's' on it ... quite the treat for a tea enthusiast such as myself. Lunch was absolutely delicious ... a complete taste bud overload. I do not have the words to describe to you the cornucopia of dining options available so instead I will leave you with a few images of our feasting experience.

After leaving Harrod's, the four of us made our way not so seamlessly to Schillings Law Firm,the most prominent media law firm in the UK (NOTE: Our tube line was down and we ended up taking a 30 minute cab ride of which about 50% was spent going in the wrong direction, a mistake the driver insisted was entirely our fault). While at Schillings, our task was to interview two employees for our Careers in Communications assignment. We met with Phil, a Trainee Solicitor, and Charlotte, the HR Manager, who explained to us the nature of media of law in general as well as life as a Schillings employee. Schillings is a 'niche boutique' firm, housing about 60 employees, that specializes in what they call 'reputation management.' Essentially, public figures of all kinds come to Schillings should any sort of defamatory story be written about them by the media and it is Schillings' job to stop said defamation. The Co-Founder and Senior Partner of the firm, Keith Schillings has not lost a case since starting the firm in 1984, so the firm's reputation carries a lot of weight when it comes to its power over the press. Also, newspapers come to Schillings prior to publishing a story as a means by which they can claim their engagement in 'responsible journalism' should a defamatory or libel case be brought against them. I learned a lot about the industry while talking to Phil and Charlotte and it was definitely interesting to hear about the ethical issues associated with, as Phil states, 'protecting clients from the more nefarious elements of the press.' Below are photos of some Schillings clients:

Madonna

Kate Winslet

Cristiano Ronaldo

J.K. Rowling

Roman Polanski

That evening, we had a group dinner with the other Current Trends in Mass Media class at Brown's in Covent Garden. Below you can see my place tag for the event. 

The dinner was both delectable and stimulating and as a means of carrying on the fun into the night, we decided as newly bonded group of CTMMA and CTMMB students to go to a lovely little neighborhood pub, the name of which completely escapes me at the moment. We then decided to make our way to another venue, but in an unfortunate twist of fate, said venue was closed upon our arrival, leaving us stranded and destitute in the streets of London. So ... we caught the tube home. However, the evening's end was not actually as big of a bust as it may seem, seeing as I found a remarkable Toy Story 3 umbrella that some poor child (or some very disturbed adult) left behind on the train. Considering my umbrella did not survive day 1 of the trip and this one looked oh so lonely, I decided to take it home with me, making the entire evening, in my opinion, quite a success. 


(Before I begin detailing Thursday's activities, I want to make known my awareness of the rapidity with which the length of this post is growing. Fortunately, Thursday was not very jam packed so I will definitely make the remainder of this entry short.)


We started of our day with a Royal London Bike Tour, which was a 4 hour trek throughout the city. It was incredibly fun and also incredibly cold. Fortunately, I found a chic little shop where I purchased the following layering pieces: 

Below are more photos from the tour:

After this, some friends and I were craving a traditional British meal so we made our way to Chipotle for lunch before heading out for an afternoon of filming for our projects. That evening, we went to Cafe Naz, a cute little Indian food restaurant on Brick Lane and then headed to Vibe Bar for Kino London's Open-Mic Short Film Night, which as it sounds, is an open-mic night for ... you guessed it ... short films. Here is a tidbit about Kino as stated on their website: 


Kino London's Open-Mic Short Film Night ...

• Is a monthly film event that is the only one of its kind in London
• Is an inclusive, open platform for the capital’s filmmakers
• Includes a worldwide network of filmmakers, creatives and video technicians
• Is as raw, fresh and exciting as filmmaking gets…

We saw some really great films, one of which you can view below. 

After leaving Vibe, there was a minor mishap that involved me navigating the subway and ultimately finding my group eating frozen yogurt at Yogland, but that is another story entirely. All that is necessary to remember about this incident is that I am sitting here today, typing this blog post, in the safe confines of a Danish elementary school. All other details are completely superfluous. 


So here ends days 3 and 4 of my long study tour. As always, I sincerely hope reading this post was a pleasant experience for you all. Tune in later this week for the fascinating details of days 5 and 6. 


Farvel!


Ord af dagen: "taxachauffør" = "taxi driver" (As in, "A disgruntled British taxachauffør yelled at me for giving him faulty directions.")

Greetings to all! I am more than pleased to inform you that I have returned from London and had a splendid time. In fact, I enjoyed my stay there so much that from hence forth, I will be speaking exclusively with a British accent as a means by which to bring a bit of the British culture back to Denmark. I will keep you posted on my linguistic endeavor as time goes on. 


Now, my week in London was jam-packed to say the least, so in an effort to prevent you from becoming angry with a 100 paged entry explicitly detailing the ins and outs of my British adventure, I will be writing multiple entries about my trip, splitting them up into 2-3 day intervals. Also, I will do my best to refrain from doing anything even remotely interesting in the next few days so as to not fall too far behind in my blogging efforts. 


So let us begin. 

I must begin by saying that, as a proud graduate of Winston Churchill High School in San Antonio, TX, a city that is also, interestingly enough, home to both Ronald Reagan High School and Robert E. Lee High School, visiting London felt just like going home. In fact, I spent the first three days incessantly humming the British National Anthem, which I definitely think earned me the respect of the locals. 

My Communications & Mass Media group arrived at Heathrow on Monday afternoon after a seamless flight (and by 'seamless' I mean that my suitcase was only 42 lbs., 3 lbs. under the limit, and only one out of four of my cans of tuna were confiscated by security personnel) and were then bussed to the Bayswater Inn, a charming little hotel on the west side of the city. Monday evening, the group dined at Hung Drawn & Quartered Pub, a dining experience that was sort of a miracle in and of itself seeing as we all almost sweated out the entire contents of our bodies on the tube during rush hour. And we got a bit lost. But that is neither here nor there. 


The dinner was lovely and enabled our stomachs to endure the Jack the Ripper Walking tour we went on post-meal. Much to my dismay, I learned on this tour that Johnny Depp was not actually a detective on the case and was therefore not present on said tour. Nonetheless, the event was fascinating. So fascinating, in fact, that I took rather extensive notes on my iPhone that, as I glance at them now, I realize are actually quite disturbed. Therefore, I will spare you the (literally) gory details of the experience in favor of a bulleted list of "fun" facts I gathered (I recognize that "fun" and "Jack the Ripper" do not typically belong in such close proximity to one another, but I am still a bit tired from the trip and my internal thesaurus is not functioning to its fullest potential). 

• The murders presumably carried out by Jack the Ripper occurred in London in 1888
• The legal age of consent at this time was 13
• The River Thames was a sewer filled with dead bodies and Cholera was also quite prevalent (which makes my bedroom sound comparatively clean) 
• The first murder took place in August and the last in November - the period in between was deemed "Autumn of Terror"
• Murder Victim #1 - Mary Nichols, 42: alcoholic, forced into prostitution after husband died
• Murder Victim #2 - Catherine Eddowes: had been arrested and released on the night of her murder on September 18; She was made to look like a clown by her killer with triangular figures on each cheek, leading some to believe that the Free Masons were somehow involved in the Jack the Ripper Murders
• There were two police forces at the time and both were competing to find the murderer
• There was a large Jewish population in the city at the time (this somehow relates to the murder of the man who built the Temple of Solomon and the Free Masons, as well, but unfortunately, I was still looking for Johnny at this point in the tour and did not fully get the connection)
• Murder Victim #4 - Elizabeth Stride: Swedish prostitute; Israel Shorts thought he witnessed a domestic dispute in an alley on this night but later, a man discoverd Elizabeth's body in his yard, still warm, indicating that the killer was hiding on his property. Because Jack was caught mid-action, he went after a second victim on the same evening
• Murder Victim #5 - Mary Kelly: killed in her own apartment and discovered the following morning by the milk boy. Neighbors 'saw' Mary leave her apartment that morning, indicating that either the killer disguised himself as a woman or possibly WAS a woman. This remains unsolved. 
• There have been over 150 suspects in these murders, including the man who killed Abe Lincoln
• Letters were sent to a journalist supposedly from the murderer, revealing his or her identity but no one knows how valid they are
• James Mabrick is one suspect. His watch had the initials of the victims etched on the back and his journal said "Time Reveals All," a possible allusion to said timepiece. 

I apologize if you found this information to be incredibly disturbing. I also apologize if you found this information to be incredibly boring. Moving on... 

Tuesday morning, we had a traditional British breakfast that included an impressive variety of white breads and eggs before heading to Al Jazeera English. For those of you not familiar with the organization, Al Jazeera is an international 24-hour English language and current affairs TV channel headquartered in Qatar, the first of its kind in the Middle East. The London office opened in 2006 and today there are over 70 bureaus worldwide. The station covers issues in global terms and prides themselves on not being 'pro-anyone.' Al Jazeera is funded by the Qatari government, but is licensed to be as universal as possible and aims to report the underreported. 

We met with Richard Gizbert of The Listening Post program who explained to us that Al Jazeera is challenging the mainstream media that shapes us by reporting the stories that have not been previously and also by commissioning filmmakers who are not employed by Al Jazeera. [Below is a promo video for Richard's show.] 

For example, if a Turkish filmmaker sends in a tape on an obscure story from his or her homeland and it is well-made and tells a good story, Al Jazeera English will likely broadcast it. A similar sort of film is iProtest, an Al Jazeera special that follows activist Debby Chan in her work against Foxconn and Apple (NOTE: Yes, I was actively taking notes on my iPad when they played this video for us, which made the whole experience mildly uncomfortable for me and all others involved...namely, my iPad.) 

Despite everyone at the station probably thinking I am a horribly selfish, iPad-using capitalist, living a meaningless consumer-driven life, the trip went well and I really learned a lot. It was very interesting to hear the point of view of a news station that is truly international in its scope and I very much enjoyed the experience. 

After leaving Al Jazeera, we headed towards The Smith's Square Bar & Restaurant for lunch. En route to lunch, we passed a large crowd of individuals with cameras standing outside a hotel. Our journalistic tendencies forced us to stop and investigate the situation. We discovered that the crowd was, and had been for the past three hours, waiting for none other than Lady Gaga to emerge from the building. We did not see her, but it was still quite an exhilarating moment in time. 

After lunch, we had free time to work on our Branding London video projects, an assignment that asks us, in groups of four, to create a 2-3 minute film that in some way "brands" the city of London. More on the progress of this video to come. Below are some photos I snapped during the creative process. 

Later that afternoon, our group visited Bloomberg Europe, a firm dedicated to aggregating and sharing international business and financial news. The company was founded by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 1986 in New York and is best known for its creation of the Market Master terminal. In 1990, Bloomberg News was founded as a further means of sharing the financial data gathered by the company. The Bloomberg office was very modern and Google-esque. In fact, the furniture in the meeting rooms are made out of old computer parts (i.e., ethernet cords and USBs) and each floor is surrounded by uniquely colored plexiglas walls, meant to stimulate different parts of the brain, taking Feng Shui to an entirely new level (For more Feng Shui tips and advice, I encourage you to visit www.fengshui.com). Another highlight of the tour included our guide, a Swedish UCLA grad, allowing us into the cafeteria for a snack (i.e., I stuffed my purse with apples, bananas, instant oatmeal, and Special K cereal bags), which was a real selling point for all of us, even those of us who, despite taking AP Economics, know little more than that money is required for making purchases... 

After leaving Bloomberg, we were on our own for dinner and then met as a group at Her Majesty's Theater for the Phantom of the Opera, which was even better than I remember it being last time I saw it London. In fact, I did not like the show at all when I saw it the summer before 7th grade but absolutely loved it this time, a testament to the rapid rate of emotional maturation I have experienced as a direct result of becoming an adult in the eyes of the Jewish people (i.e., I had my Bat Mitzvah the summer after 7th grade). After the show, there was a mass exodus of sorts as we all navigated the tube as a group of 23, which I hear the locals totally love. 

Anywho, that is all for now. I will not pain you any longer, seeing as I have four more days worth of material to share with you. Get ready, baby. Thanks for tuning in.

Farvel!

ord af dagen: "hvidt brød" = "white bread" (As in, "I was incredibly overwhelmed by the immense variety of 'hvidt brøds' served at our hotel.")