Live is Life
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Huckleberries.
There’s nothing like breaking a nice sweat as you hike your way to way to a remote waterfall surrounded by snow. There’s nothing like taking pictures of spectacular snow powdered mountains illuminated by the slowly setting sun—a view so pristine ,yur brain thinks your eyes are lying. There’s nothing like the walk back to your new, friendly home to have a slice of sweet huckleberry pie with a new friend.
On my first day here I was feeling overwhelmed. I had been jumping around, spending the night at random friend’s places and going-going-going, like I always do, for the week after my return to the states. After my car broke down (when I’ve never had a single problem with it in the 5 years I’ve had it) four hours before I was supposed to make the twelve hour drive to my new summer home, my parents, bless their hearts <3, drove me the whole way just to turn around and drive back. Jesus. I was exhausted (and I bet they are, too). I slept for two hours, ate dinner, slept for two more, unpacked my clothes for an hour or so and finally slipped into a 13 hour coma until the next morning. This was probably a good thing because besides the exhaustion, I felt this overpowering ache for all the friends and family I was leaving behind again. There are just so many wonderful people in my life right now and it feels like I have to wait so long until I see them again all over again. No cell phone service, internet or even a car to get to it can make it a little hard, you know? I feel a little more isolated than I was in Denmark, haha. Buuut, I know it’ll be okay. This is much shorter than my study abroad—only three months. They’ll all be there when I get back. *sigh* I’m gonna make the most of this time too, for sure.
It’s been a few days since then and I’m feeling much better now as you can probably tell by the first paragraph. Everyone is really friendly, my roommate is really laid back, a hardcore hiker and knows her stuff. The beauty of this place is also sinking in and it’s really…. nice. :)I have yet to find anyone that rock climbs and has ropes but I’ve already done a couple hikes, seen some grizzlies (and cubs!), moose, big horned sheep, deer, bunnies, and plenty of ground squirrels. I’m surrounded by mountain after mountain and I can’t wait until the snow clears a bit so I can climb them all!
- Jenn
(Pictures as soon as I can! There's no internet, cell service or electricity right now.)
EDIT: Check dis shieet ooout!
I can't wait to drive down Going to the Sun Road.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Copenhagen CRAZY
So about my other big field study! One evening I got paired up with a few other girls from my class and we were all assigned to different bars. We got assigned to one that caters to the older generation of gay men so when we walked in we got some... stares. We ordered some drinks, sat down and decided to try and come up with a plan to get someone to let us interview them. We were only chatting for a few minutes before a very old man (I swear, he must have been like 75!) drunkenly came over and asked us if we knew it was a gay bar. When we said yes he then asked "Well are you beautiful girls lesbians?" to which we replied "no". Then he went on to talk about how lesbians come in gay bars and other things that didn't quite make sense. It was pretty entertaining and I started to ask if we could interview him, but he was headed out so we went back to scheming about who we might be able to corner for our assignment.
Eventually we noticed a younger male couple (late twenties, possibly early thirties) to our left who kept looking at us curiously. While we ordered more drinks, one of the girls in my group approached them and asked about interviewing them. At first one of them (I'll call him Guy 2) said no, but the other guy thought they should give us a chance (Guy 1). My group member apologized saying that she didn't know how to go about asking them for the interview in the right way and they laughed saying "there is no right way" but we seemed nice enough. And it went great! We had long discussions about the government, gay rights, immigration, the media (which side-tracked to Glee, hahaha).
At first Guy 2 was really quiet and didn't want to say much, but as the conversation progressed he suddenly just opened up. He told us how we was from Jutland, from a town of like 1000 people. He had a lot of difficulties being accepted when he came out. His family basically abandoned him, he was bullied and someone even tried to strangle him in a bar. He moved to Copenhagen because it was safer and more open. He did have some good friends to support him while he was going through such difficult times, but it was still really hard for him. You could tell by the look on his face. It makes me feel so sad to hear about how horrible people are to others who are different. I just want to smack people upside the head sometimes and ask how it could be possible that they've never understood the concept of "treat others as you would like to be treated". But it's more complicated than that of course.
Anyway, the interview went really well. We had some good laughs. At one point they were talking about immigration (Guy 1 has been given his green card to move to the U.S. but they are partners and he doesn't want to leave Guy 2 so they're figuring out what to do) and as they talked about finding a way to be together there was this moment... They stopped and looked into each other's eyes and it was just... love. Their faces held so much tenderness, care, and affection and just... this deep, real love for each other. The rest of my group went silent for a moment because they noticed too. It was such a truly beautiful and private moment and I think we all felt a twinge of envy.
It was a good night. :)
I went paintballing a week or so ago and it was great! That weekend I wasn't feeling too good at first. I came down with this weird 24hr cold that made me tired and the piles of homework made me grumpy and hermitty and all the more stressed out. I really needed to get some fresh air. (Although I did have fun drinking goblets of wine with my host mom that Friday night because apparently red wine has lots of vitamines and is good for a cold...? I really haven't heard that one before but that's what my host mom said it was still pretty fun, haha. Totally hyggelit.)
The paintball game was legit stuff. I was actually pretty intimidated when I arrived because there were so many giant Danish men (Scandinavians have the highest average height in the world thus, Danish boys are big boys.) in camoflauge outfits with their Halo-esk (sp? I can't remember...) masks and smoking their stinky cigarettes. They just looked so... tough. Once I got my gear on I felt more sure of myself, though. I do really miss hanging out with guys. They tend to get up and do stuff rather than sit around and talk about feelings, haha. With the DIS students being 70% female, sometimes there's just too much estrogen around me.
Anyway, it was kind of funny how pumped up my entire group was. We played several different games over a three hour period with our final battle including around 150 people. Intense! It was like a fricken war except it was really fun and something I'd love to do again. I'm proud to say that I got a few pretty good head shots in. (I got a couple of my own little welts too...) Being outside running around and getting covered in dirt and sweat was just... refreshing. I love it and I can't wait for Summer!
Well, that's all for now unless you want me to complain about my homework some more.
- Jenn
Friday, April 1, 2011
Red Lights.
I think I may have mentioned this before but the area I'm from in the States pretty much has one of the worst human trafficking rates in the Country and I think I've found something that I would really like to work to make some sort of difference in. So when I get back I plan on starting out by volunteering at the Sexual Assault Resource Center just to tip my toes in. I'm really nervous about it, but I think I could do it. A couple days ago I actually found out about internships abroad involving human rights and trafficking and that got me super excited. I found one that's based in Bangkok for four months and you get to learn about various NGO's and work with them and do research too! It sounds incredible! I'd love to do something like that!
Alrighty, time to do some homework. More soon!
- Jenn
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Ciao Milano! (Part 3 ;9)
One random memory I have of my time in Milan was on my first day there. We had just arrived and were sent off to explore the fortress in the center of the city for a little while. I had wandered around with Delayna to take some pictures. I noticed that there were quite a few African men standing around selling "prada" bags and carrying little bracelets around. As we made our way back to meet our class (that actually had left us behind so we had to find our own way to meet them at Il Duomo. It was kind of startling at first, but we did really well because I have travelled alone before and she had a very handy map.) one of the African men handed Delayna and I bracelets. I didn't think anything of at first, just taking it because I was kind of spacing out, but then I suddenly I snapped back into travel mode as he said "it's free for you!". I hurridly grabbed the bracelets out of Delayna's hand and started trying to give them back to the man saying "No no no no no!" as he kept insisting they were free (which they were mostly definitely not) and we should keep them. I literally started cornering him so I could drape the braclets on top of his hand because he absolutely refused to take them back. The whole time Delayna looked really confused because she had never been in this situation before but I ended up just hurrying us away after I managed to quickly drape my bracelet on his hand. What a rush, haha.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Ciao Milano! (Part 2 :D)
I did manage to get to know other people in the class besides that group I was stuck with most of the time in Jutland. I just love it when I meet a person that just kind of wants the same things I do. I made buddies with this sweet girl named Delayna. We did a lot of shopping, eating gelato, and walking exploring the towns together while other people just went back to the hotel to nap. (I know we're all exhausted but c'mon! Who knows when we'll be in Italy again! This is incredible!!) This is when we were exploring Milan and Como (a side trip our class took to see the more quaint side of Italy).
These first few picture are mostly exploring Milan:
Delayna in her new real leather Jacket we searched all over for and me in my new shiney jacket that I love! It has one of those secret-inside-the-jacket-pockets that I thought were SO cool when I was a kid:
The Triumphan Arch in Milan:
Beautiful Como where George Clooney owns three villas. OoOoO!:
The whole time I was in Italy I felt like was in this weird "dream within a dream" phase. I mean, I go on this long thing to learn in Denmark and then I go on this shorter thing to learn in Italy and then when I finished I was just going to go back to home-- Copenhagen? It was like my life was on a double pause. It's hard to explain, I guess. I love Denmark and my host family, but it really does feel strange that this place has become my home now. I'm scared of how I might feel when I leave it for good. This thing is already halfway finished! Holy cow!
Anyway, one of the nights whoever arranged the itinerary decided that it would be a great idea send all of us to wine tasting before dinner when we were all starving. First we had a sparkling wine, then a white wine, and then a red wine. They were all delicious and we got lots of refills. Considering the the stumbling, the sudden lack of the comprehension of personal space, and excess shouting and laughing, I'm pretty sure the whole class was a little drunk when we left to go get dinner. It was a good time. :)
Okay, gotta do some more homework now. More soon! :)
- Jenn
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Ciao Milano! (Part 1 O:)
I think I'll start off with the first thing that comes to mind: the flight. This picture doesn't do the view I had of this justice, but it's literally one of the most beautiful things I have EVER seen. We all had to wake up at like 5am for the flight so for most of it we all just passed out. However, towards the end I started to wake up and when I happened to look out the window my breath was literally taken away. There were snow-capped mountains as far as the eye could see. God, I want to climb them all! It was so so incomprehensibly beautiful. Tears filled my eyes at the overwhelming awe I felt. Nature is magnificent! I love it!:
During our time in Milan we had a lot of academic visits planned. However when you're getting hardly any sleep because there's so much to do and you're overstimulated by an entirely new environment, new language, trying to find where you need to eat, sleep, go, learn etc., no matter how interested you are, after sitting down to listen for about five minutes, you are out with the rest of the class. (I felt so ashamed about it, like I was being incredibly rude to this top researchers who were trying to share their valuable knowledge with us, but when I looked around I just felt like laughing at the how much everyone's expressions mirrored my own exhaustion.) I think the only thing I really learned from my academic sessions was that happiness is viewed differently in different cultures. Well that's nice.
We did go to this one place that dealt with alternative healing methods involving positive psychology which used more Eastern views. The school was called Ayurveda...something. You can learn about the theory more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayurveda which I will also do when I have the time... One of their treatments involved this giant wooden table where the client would lie down and have warm, scented oils poured onto their forhead in a rhythmic motion. It's supposed to be a very spiritual experience. I'd sure give it a try. The place also had lots of yoga and meditation type therapies.
During one of our days there we went to see the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci. I had no idea it was in Milan and I was very excited to see it as I've read the Da Vinci Code twice and have heard about all of the "secret" messages it carries endlessly. There were no pictures allowed and the ones online really don't do it justice. The painting is HUGE. 15x30ft about and it was so well-done that it looked almost 3D. Just beautiful. I love the silence that such historically unique things overcome you with. I think the weight of the history and the life behind the hands that created such a large masterpiece just kind of shut you up if you have any comprehension of reality. Yet again, breathtaking.
The final thing that took my breath away was Duomo Di Milano. It's the second largest Catholic cathedral and the largest gothic cathedral in the world and boy is it large. We went to this place a lot because most of the food and shopping was situated around the cathedral area. Everytime I emerged from the subway to see it towering ahead of me in all of its detailed, gigantic glory, I'd be overcome with excitment and awe. Every single time, haha. After much persistance and um... reminding by me, I managed to find time climb to the roof with my buddies and get a wonderful view of the city. It was a wonderful experience.
- Jenn
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
日本頑張れ!
I don't know whether I should feel silly or not for how deeply stressed I've begun to realize this is making me. (Not to mention these next two weeks are when all our major group projects and essays are due. Aaah!!) It's just, Japan was my home and over the past month or so, I've really been noticing how much Japanese culture became a part of me in that short year and still is a part of who I am. I love the simplicity of the little things in Denmark that remind me of the familiarity of Japan. For example, we turn the shower on and off just like Japan to conserve water. It's such a simple little thing, but it's... nice. The other night my host mom brought home sushi and I was SO excited. (And the sushi cost like 200 US dollars!! Wtf!? My God, Denmark is really expensive... My host mom got it again a couple nights later too, I couldn't believe it. Granted we were celebrating my host brother's high grades and my host sister's birthday. But still.) I started rambling about the rice, the miso soup, the amazing meals, helping everyone with their chopsticks and even teaching my host mom some Japanese. Man, I was excited, haha.
As I've been learning Danish I've also found myself thinking in Japanese a lot more. And it's the strangest thing because I haven't been there in two years! All of this linguistic stimulation is confusing my brain, especially now that I have a little Italian rolling around in there too, but I find it facsinating how it all mashes together and I can go from saying "ciao" to "onegaishimasu" to "tak" to "okay". I think I actually had a dream in Japanese the other night...
It seems as though every country I go to becomes a little part of me, making me a more complete human being and more connected with the world. Whether it's the little joys of gift giving, peaceful acceptance and support of all people despite the variation of beliefs, or the sweetness of sipping amaretto after dinner.
Anyways, despite all of the challenges I faced while living in Japan, the ease of living in Copenhagen and being abroad (minus the little bout of homesickenss) gives me a lot of appreciation for the experience I gained. I miss you Japan and you're always in my heart! <3
Stories of Milano soon!
- Jenn