Holland!

Hello all! I just got back from Holland with my CMC class and what an amazing trip it was! We left last Sunday at 8am, which meant I had to leave my house by 6:30 to catch the 6:45 train into CPH (joy), and had a wonderful 8 hour bus ride to look forward to! We went to Groningen and Amsterdam, and it was a great trip.

Sunday night around 7pm we arrived at our hotel in Groningen after a grueling day of traveling, and our hotel was beautiful. We had a group dinner at an Indonesian restaurant which was very spicy but also delicious, and then the rest of the night on our own. I was too exhausted to go out so I went back to the hotel with most of the group. We had to walk both ways, which we found out the next day was about 4 miles!!

Saturday we had a group visit at the University of Groningen's Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences. This trip to Holland was my long study tour with DIS, which meant that it combined both academic and cultural visits. We walked around Groningen and then climbed the Martini Tower (named after Saint Martin, no idea who that is). This reminded me of the tower I climbed in Spain ( I don't remember if it was Sevilla or Cordoba), but at least that was just a long winding ramp, this was a narrow spiraling staircase to the top of the tower, so I tried very hard not to feel claustrophobic. After almost passing out, we made it to the top of the tower which gave us a magnificent view of the city of Groningen. After that, we had time on our own, which we used for walking around/shopping, and we found a nice little mexican restaurant for dinner. Most of us have been deprived of cultural food in CPH because the restaurants are soo expensive and not always delicious, so we were all excited to have mexican food for dinner. We each ordered nachos, a gigantic portion, and it was fantastic!

Tuesday we left Groningen and headed for Nijeveen where we had a visit at a refugee school, actually it is called a receiving school: Eerste Opvang van de Woldstroom, the first receiving school for refugee children ages 4-14. This was by far the highlight of the trip. Our core class is Children in a Multicultural Context (CMC), so visiting a refugee school fit perfectly with our studies. We had a presentation about the school: the children at the school are from the ages of 4 to 14 and they are there to learn Dutch. After the age of 14 they are put into the public school system in the surrounding areas. The children that attend the school come from asylum centers (refugee children), but also adopted children who therefore do not speak Dutch. Of the refugee children who attend the school, they often come and go, because they are moved around a lot from one asylum to another, so the teachers don't know how long each child will be there for, which can be upsetting and difficult to deal with. Yet the teachers are much more than teachers to these kids, they are like a mother to many of them. Their work extends beyond the classroom. One teacher explained how the young girls often want to talk to her in private about topics such as sex and their periods, so she must teach them about their menstrual cycle, as well as safe sex. She is worried that two girls in her class might be prostitutes. because on Mondays they often come in wearing brand new clothes. I really enjoyed my visit with these children. They were so friendly, and eager to talk to us. Many of them spoke English because they came from African nations (one girl from Somalia said that back home you can't go to school if you don't speak English). In one class, they all introduced themselves by telling us their name, where they live in Holland (which meant nothing to us), and their home country. Many of the kids in that class were from Burundi. We had the opportunity to play with them at recess, which was just so much fun. The kids really wanted us to play with them, which is the complete opposite experience that I have with the Danish toddlers at my practicum site, but that could be because three-year olds are often quite independent and are often exploring in their own imaginary world. Some of us played football (soccer) with the older boys, they seemed like they were all having a blast; some of us played with the younger kids (4-6) on the jungle gym and helped them do flips on the monkey bars; I played some games with the older kids. One of the games was with a rope and whoever jumped out of the circle last had to do something silly. The "silly action" rotated from telling someone in the circle they were beautiful, to giving someone a kiss, to having to sing and dance in the middle. The girls all told me I was beautiful and they gave me kisses, which was soo sweet and really made me feel included in their game! When I lost and it was my turn to do something silly, I sang a Backstreet Boys song. :-) After recess the young children performed a song and dance for us, which we joined in on, and then showed them some American song and dances for young kids, such as the hokey pokey. Then the older kids came in and we were all singing and dancing together in Dutch, it was so much fun! It was then time to say goodbye to the kids (it was 3pm). The teachers make a point to wave goodbye to the buses each day (the kids are bussed in from the asylum centers and camps) because they never know who is going to come back the next day. So we got the chance to do the same. I really connected with some of the kids (the older girls said I was chill and nice to hang out with), so needless to say it was extremely difficult for me to say goodbye to them. One girl asked me if we were coming back the next day and I said, "no, we're only here for today". That's when I realized that I was never going to see these wonderful children again, which broke my heart. What made it worse was that the kids asked for our email addresses, and we weren't allowed to give them out because then the kids would try and contact us and ask us for help. This also broke my heart, and I couldn't bring myself to give them a fake email address. When it came time to say goodbye and watch them board the bus, and as I was hugging one little girl ( the one who had gave me kisses and told me I was beautiful during the circle game), I lost it and started crying. It was heart wrenching to know that I was never going to see them again, and I really felt like I had bonded with them in such a short amount of time. As I was standing there crying, the little girl came back over and gave me the biggest hug ever to cheer me up, which only made me cry more because she was being so sweet. Later, I was saying goodbye to the other girls, and I lost it again, started crying, and they wiped away my tears and were giving me hugs, which again just made me cry harder. By this point I was bawling. But the teacher told me that those girls are there everyday, which made me feel better that they would be there tomorrow. We had a wrap-up with the teachers who told us that only a small percentage of children don't return, which made me feel slightly better. We said goodbyes and thank yous to the teachers and then departed for Amsterdam. What an amazing but emotionally draining day!

As if that wasn't enough, that night when we went to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. I thought I was going to cry but I didn't. It was absolutely amazing and unbelievably eerie to walk past the bookcase and up the narrow stairs to the annex where Anne Frank hid for a year and a half. I could almost feel her presence in the house, and it was so surreal to stand in her bedroom. Unbelievable.

The next day we went to an International school in which the majority of the kids who attend the school are Dutch, British, and American. This visit wasn't nearly as exciting as our visit to the refugee school; we didn't get to go inside classrooms are talk to the students directly, but there was definitely a lot of diversity present.

That evening we had the lovely opportunity to go to a Wervel Performance, which consisted of a woman spinning in a circle for an hour. No joke. Did I mention that the students who went to London on their tour got to see Wicked? Yeah, that's fair. I don't even know wtf a Wervel performance is, and of course they did not explain it to us at the beginning of the show. All I know is that there's some sort of religious aspect to it, I think the idea is that your spinning up to G-d? I don't know... I cannot even begin to explain how f---ing strange it was to sit and watch a woman spin and spin and spin and spin and spin for an hour. Though she did change it up a bit with her arms and the speed of her spinning.

On Thursday we went to Keukenhof, a tulip/flower garden an hour outside of Amsterdam. It's called The Garden of Europe, has the largest sculpture garden in the Netherlands, and claims to be the most photographed spot in the world. Although it was raining while we were there (and rained the majority of the time we were in Amsterdam) it was still absolutely beautiful to see all the flowers in bloom, and so many beautiful tulips! The theme was New York, which makes sense because the first settlers of NYC were the Dutch! So instead of I heart NY, there was a giant I Tulip (with a red tulip bulb) NY.

Friday we went to the Van Gogh museum, which was having a special exhibition of Starry Night: all of his paintings that he did at night. So of course there was the original Starry Night, which I have seen before at the MOMA, which actually owns it, because the one at the museum was from MOMA. But my new favorite Van Gogh painting is Starry Night on the Rhone. It was beautiful and looked like an actual photograph from afar with the way he created the reflection on the water. After the museum we had a nice Indian lunch and then departed for our way back to CPH on a wonderful 12 hour bus!

Of course there are some things I left out, such as the coffeeshops and the red light district. I won't get into how much of Amsterdam's vices I tried out, but in case you were wondering, no, I did not buy a prostitute. :-) I thought Amsterdam was going to be extremely seedy, with lots of pickpocketing and gypsies around, but it wasn't at all. There was no seedy feeling at all, except for maybe the red light district. In fact, with all the canals, Amsterdam was absolutely beautiful. Especially at night with all the canal bridges lit up with lights and the swans in the water, it was gorgeous.

The red light district was extremely interesting. The girls all looked liked barbie dolls, and I found it fascinating to watch the men. At one point, a group of guys were standing around one window and the lady came out to talk to them trying to convince them to come in... the policeman standing on the corner shouted to the guys, "come on now, don't be shy!" Haha, I guess that's Amsterdam for you... ;-)

Immersion

It's been a while since I last updated this blog! Let's see, what's been going on...

Last Thursday I went to Christina's school to meet with Merete's students. Merete is a 9th grade English teacher who has been teaching her students about the U.S. and NYC, so when she heard that Christina was having an American host student (no less a New Yorker) she jumped at the opportunity to invite me to her classroom. I actually met with her about a month ago and we talked for about an hour about New York and America and she had many questions for me. What was extremely funny though, was when we met up before going to her classroom, she asked me if I knew the Pledge of Allegiance and if I could recite it for the class. I stared at her blankly, I couldn't remember the Pledge of Allegiance! After a few moments it came back to me, but Merete was quite surprised that I didn't know it off the top of my head. I had to explain to her that I hadn't recited the Pledge of Allegiance in school since pre-K and I only did it then because I went to a Catholic school. She thought everyone recited the Pledge in school, and that's when I had to explain to her the separation of Church and State and that we don't recite it in Public Schools. She was surprised and said, "well, that goes my stereotype of American students".

I spoke to Merete's students in two groups. The first group was quite shy at first but they quickly opened up and had a bunch of questions for me. The most popular question among teens is what I think about the drinking age of 16 in Denmark. That's when I explain to them about the college drinking scene and how most young Americans start drinking at 18 even though they cannot legally until 21. They also asked me about getting my license, about the biggest difference between Denmark and the U.S., in which I talked about how NY is really the city that never sleeps with diners and stores open 24/7 and our shops and supermarkets are opened past 6pm (for stores, 8pm for supermarkets here) and the fact that our transportation runs 24/7! They also asked me about drugs and sex in the U.S., Prom (they were disappointed when I told them that Prom is overrated, though I made them feel better when I explained that at the time it's a big deal when you're in high school, but looking back on it I couldn't care less), as well as 9/11. All in all, it was quite fun.

This weekend I felt like a real Dane because I got to go to Lalandia with my host family. I arrived on Saturday afternoon with Michael and Christina. My host grandparents had rented out one of the cottages for the weekend, ours was closest to the water and steps from the mini-theme park. So it was the whole family: grandparents, Michael, Christina, August, Katherine, and Michael's sister, husband, and daughter. It was a lot of fun. Lalandia has a mini-waterpark with 4 slides, one brand new one which was relatively big that we went on a thousand times and raced each other down (we all have bruises from bumping and pushing each other!), an outdoor pool and jacuzzi, Turkish bath and sauna, as well as a mini-indoor wavepool, regular pool, and some more slides. August told me that this waterpark was the biggest in Denmark, but it is very small compared to American waterparks. The resort also had minigolf, a trampoline/bungee jump thing which I did with Katherine, bowling, ice skating, an arcade, playgrounds, and restaurants. We mainly hung out in the waterpark for the weekend, though I sat on the sidelines while they went ice skating for an hour on Sunday (I realized last time when we went ice skating in Copenhagen that I absolutely hate it). The most awkward part of the weekend was showering naked in front of my host family and random Danish women. In Denmark, you must shower before entering a pool, and by shower I do mean get completely naked in an open area with other women and shower side-by-side. Except that I completely forgot about that rule, and was quite taken aback when I walked into the shower room with Christina and was greeted by lots of naked Danish women! Yes, I know we all have the same bits and pieces up above and down below, but it was still awkward and slightly uncomfortable, especially seeing the women of my host family naked. Overall though, I had a wonderful time at Lalandia and it was a nice change from Copenhagen.

Other things...

Today we had a guest lecturer for my core class, Children in a Multicultural Context. His name was Subhi, and he is originally from Iraq but has been living in Denmark for 16 years, so he came before the strict immigration laws were passed in 2001. Subhi talked to us about culture and cross-cultural comparisons, which was extremely interesting to apply to a Danish setting and think about how Danes view cross-cultural issues, and it was also good preparation for our study tour to Holland. In Holland we will be visiting a Refugee school in Groningen in which the children are bused to school each day from the refugee camp. I am extremely excited for this visit as well as the comparisons and contrasts we will be able to make between Holland's socialist policies and Denmark's Integration policies. While Denmark's Integration policies on the surface may suggest that they want to integrate minorities into Danish society, what their policies really practice is assimilation. One example can be seen in one of the requirements for immigration into Denmark, in which you must prove that your connections in Denmark (your social networks) are stronger than your connections to your home country. On the contrary, Holland employs a policy of socialization, which focuses on making sure that individuals function in their new environment; they does not focus on integration, they believe integration takes years and is thus not required of immigrants. I am looking forward to learning more about Holland's view on immigration and opportunity to make comparisons and contrasts to Denmark. It is interesting because in Denmark right now, there is a conservative party in power, whose subtle but present racist viewpoints on immigration and integration are very different from the viewpoints of many Danish citizens, specifically from citizens who reside in Zealand (Copenhagen and the surrounding area). Many individuals who I have talked to have said that they are embarrassed by the Danish government's harsh immigration laws. At a dinner party I attended last week, the host of the party talked about how an Arab colleague had emailed him about coming to Denmark to find work. The host of the party said that he had not written him back yet because he felt guilty, embarrassed, and saddened that he would have tell this man that there was no way he would be able to come to Denmark. It's interesting, because I don't think I would feel "embarrassed" about the U.S.'s tough immigration policies, but Denmark is much more of a collectivist society than the U.S. is, so Danes really feel that the government is a repsentative of them as individuals. In another anecdote, Michael works for a computer software company. He was explaining to me how they would like to hire qualified individuals from India or China who possess the skills for the job (Denmark doesn't do much outsourcing), but it is nearly impossible to do so because such individuals would not be able to get into Denmark and gain residency. He also said that he was embarrassed of the government's policies. It has been extremely interesting to learn about Denmark's integration policies, which were passed in 2001 after the U.S. government made it much more difficult to get into America. It has also been interesting to look at how such integration policies reflect Denmark's view on their growing multicultural population, an issue that has only become relevant in the last 40 years or so. This is quite different to our history in America, in which our country's history and diversity are intertwined.

These have just been some of my thoughts from my what I havetaken away from my CMC class. I will try and write once more before I leave for Holland because on Wednesday I am visiting an open prison. Yes, Denmark has an open prison system. Ah, the liberal Danes!

Vi ses!

So last night I went to see the ballet of Romeo and Juliet (Danish version) and guess who was there: The Queen of Denmark!! It was very exciting! When she entered to sit in the box seats, along with her sister and the former Queen of Greece, everyone stood up and then sat down after she sat down. The woman sitting next to me said that the Queen goes to such shows quite often. The Danes admire their Royal Family very much, everyone seems to look up to them, so it was pretty cool to finally see her in person! The ballet was in the Royal Theater which is also the old Opera House and it is gorgeous. The ballet itself was quite long, 3 hours!! but it was fun. Danielle and I bought the tickets through DIS at a subsidized price. Because they forgot to send us our tickets, we got bumped up to Orchestra seating, though Danielle and I were sitting in the last row of the Orchestra and of course my left field of vision was obstructed by a pole/ column holding up the theater. But I manged to be able to see! Through DIS we were able to buy tickets to three shows: the next one is in April and is the Phantom of the Opera. Though Danielle and I just realized that it might be in Danish, so we have to rent the original before going so that we have a basic understanding of the plot. Then the last show is a new Danish opera, I believe it is called The Royal Physician, about a Danish doctor who tried to overthrow the Royal family. It sounds interesting and it's at the new Opera house, which is primarily why we bought the tickets. The New Opera house cost millions of kroners to build, and the money was donated by one of the wealthiest guys in Denmark, or the wealthiest man. The exterior is all glass and it sits right on the water, so I'm excited to get to see the inside of it.

This weekend I am going to Lollandia with my host family. Lollandia is this resort place in Southern Zealand (the island that Copenhagen is on), in which there are rental cottages and all sorts of activities: bowling, ice skating, swimming, etc. It sounds like it is very similar to Lake George. My host grandparents take their grandchildren every year for a weekend, and this year I'm invited! The grandkids leave with the grandparents on Fri night and the adults join Sat afternoon. I will be arriving with the adults.

Next weekend my fabulous 3 week break begins!! I leave for Holland on Sunday with my core class, then I come home the following weekend which is my host brother's confirmation, then my mom comes for a week and we are going to Prague for a few days (soo excited to see her!!), then the week after that I am going to Berlin, Vienna, and Budapest with some friends by train and taking a 24hour train ride home from Budapest to CPH (I'm not sure if that's going to be really cool to see that part of Europe by train, or if that 24 hour ride is going to kill me and I'll be in the worst mood ever. I'm trying to stay positive though). Needless to say I am very very VERY EXCITED!! :-) While I am excited to be here in Denmark, I realized that I've gotten caught up in the routine of everyday life here, so a break is much needed!

Talk soon! Visces(Danish for "see you")

Quick Update

I don't have that much time to write, but I did want to give you guys a quick update on what's going on. First off, I have the flu, which is just wonderful. I went to the doctor yesterday, and there isn't much you can do except get lots of rest and drink lots of liquids, which is exactly what I did yesterday. I'm feeling a little better today, and we are going to the supermarket soon to pick up some chicken noodle soup, saltines, and hopefully ginger ale or seltzer. Then we are off to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, one of the largest museums in Denmark, so that should be fun. Some quick updates: lasts week I met with Ken Foxmen who is originally from Chicago, came here on DIS in the late '80s, fell in love with his host sister, and moved here for her after he graduated college. They were together for 5 years, it didn't work out, he decided to stay here because he had one more year in his masters, and eventually met his current wife who he has a 5 year-old daughter with, Lea :-). So I met with him and his students, who are going to NYC in April. The students are 15 and 16 years old, and they get extra English 2 hours a week. They had all sorts of questions for me: one asked about what I thought about Obama and what his presidency meant to me, needless to say that stirred up a lot emotion in me. It's funny, because almost every Dane I have met has asked me that question! Another girl asked me about 9/11 and how that changed NYC. More "fun" questions were about my favorite restaurant in NY (since they will be going there for 8 days), my favorite places to hang out in NYC, and if I've seen any celebrities. My words of wisdom for them: they had to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge to get a magnificent view of the Manhattan skyline, and they had to eat a meal in Chinatown. :-). Then this week I went to Christina's school to tutor Anders in English. Anders is the boy who lived in Singapore for 5 years because his dad is in the shipping industry, and moved back to Denmark about 2 years ago. He is now 10, so he lived in Singapore from the time he was 2/3 until he was 8, and while there he went to an international school, so his first language is English. His mother doesn't want him to loose his English skills (he absolutely fluent), so she pays me to converse in English with him. I picked out some stuff from timeoutkids.com (the Time magazine), so we read an article about Obama, answered some questions about it, and then did some worksheets and wordgames. Then I just conversed with him for a bit. In total, I spent about an hour with him, and it wasn't that bad. His mom said I did a great job and that I should be a teacher! :-) So she is paying me about 125DKK an hour (yeah their minimum wage here is the equivalent of 20 dollars), which is about 25 bucks, not bad since I can't have a real job while I am here! Anyway, that's about it for now, just wanted to give you a quick update. Having the flu sucks ass, but I slept a lot yesterday and I am feeling a bit better.

Oslo, Norway!!

This weekend my friends and I went on a mini-cruise to Oslo, Norway and it was fantastic! While we got on each other's nerves a bit (which was a little stressful, but a good wake-up call and preparation for spring break when I travel with the same people again), we really did have a wonderful time. It was also my first time on a cruise ship, so it was a trip of many firsts!

I went with three other friends: Daniel, Danielle, and Marie. We were looking for a fourth person for a while because all of our other friends couldn't make it for various reasons, but I asked Marie (who I knew from my survival Danish class) and she said yes! So it was a good group of people. The mini-cruise is nicknamed the "booze cruise" probably because there is a duty-free store on board and bars and restaurants. But it's not like they give out free alcohol. The boat left at 5:30 pm from some terminal in Copenhagen, so my friends and I decided to go food shopping after class on Friday because the restaurants on the boat are little expensive. We went to Netto, which is the cheapest food store in Copenhagen, and bought fruit, crackers, juice popcorn, nutella, rolls for breakfast, and of course, booze. We then got bagel sandwiches to have for dinner that evening, and chocolate croissants at Saint Peter's Bakery to have for breakfast the next day, yummm. We went back to DIS to drop off our school stuff and pick up our overnight bags, and then we went to the terminal to get on the ship: Crown of Scandinavia!

The funniest thing was when we got on the boat, super excited about the ship and our room, and when we got to our room it was the smallest, narrowest "room" we had ever seen! But, Danielle had splurged the extra 10 dollars per person(yes, we paid her back), to get a room with a view of the ocean, so we had a wonderful view! Thank goodness she did that, because otherwise we would have been in a room BELOW the car garage, under sea level, somewhere near the engine of the boat! Each room also had its own private shower (thank goodness!) which came provided with soap, towels, bedsheets, comforters, and pillows. It saved a lot of packing room! We threw our stuff down, went up to explore the boat (three or four restaurants, a bar, one nightclub, and one discotheque, a movie theater, a kids corner and play area, and a Baresso (one of the coffee chains in CPH), and then we outside to the top deck of the ship to watch the sunset over Copenhagen and watch our departure. Already our trip was off to a beautiful start!

Soon after the boat departed, we went down to our cabin (after making some quick purchases at the duty-free shop), because it was very windy and quite cold on the deck! We ate our delicious sandwiches for dinner, and then decided to take a nap. It was too early to get the party started, I was also a bit sick from having migraines all week including on Friday, and Danielle was a little loopy from her Dramamine pill.

After our naps we got the party started in our room with a little help from the duty-free booze we bought. We then went to explore the nightclub. Awkward. First was karaoke (the music was way too loud), followed by lots of techno music. It was fun for a bit, but not enough to stay there til 3 in the morning. We called it quits pretty early in the night, I guess around 1, since it was a little lame and we had to get up early for Oslo!

We woke up early the next day to experience Oslo from the boat: beautiful snow-covered mountains, with little houses on the hillsides. It was absolutely breathtaking and didn't look real! The water was beautifully iced too. Oh yeah, it was going to be a cold day. Our plan was to go Tobogganing (sledding!) at Frognerseteren (a sledding and ski area 30 minutes from the city center of Oslo), then to the Vigeland Sculpture Park (Norway's top attraction and outdoor sculpture park), then to the Evard Munch museum to see The Scream, and then shopping for souvenirs and a light lunch in town. We didn't have time to do everything because the sledding was SO MUCH FUN! Though it made me sick (I didn't have goggles or sunglasses, so if I was behind a person on a sled, all the snow from their sled went all over my face, so it was kind of like a shower PLUS sweating because the sun was beating down on you and you had to walk up hills to go back up), but it was well worth it! It was a huge toboggan run, that at full speed only takes about 10 minutes, but it goes pretty far, you have to take the tram back up to the top! Plus the location was absolutely gorgeous: at the top of a huge mountain overlooking the water and the city of Oslo! So we did the big run twice, and then did a little run, which was all bumps (got some bruises from that!) then returned our sleds and took the tram back into the city. We had to cut the sculpture park (not enough time) and quickly made our way over the the Munch museum. Only, The Scream wasn't there. Yep. I think it was still being restored from when someone stole it last year or a couple of years ago. But they had the The Scream in pastel, which was still wonderful, and we saw some of his other works of art which were equally beautiful. We then quickly went into the center of town and finally found a souvenir shop filled with all sorts of chachkis( sorry, can't spell Yiddush words correctly!), apparently Norway is big on trolls, so there were lots of troll chochkis, which were just creepy. The best were all the tacky Norweigan sweaters! I bought a shot glass, and a moose or reindeer keychain (I really wanted to go reindeer sledding, so I bought it to remind me of Norway lol). I also bought some Edvard Munch art postcards at the museum. A quick stop at Burger King (we were hungry!) and then back to the cruise ship!

We decided to eat dinner on the boat that night. The plan was to take a 4-hour nap (5-9) then have a late dinner at 9, pre-game and then go to the discotheque. We booked reservations at the cheapest restaurant on board, the 7 Seas Restaurant which was a buffet. It was pretty good (thought pricey for a buffet: $45 USD) with a variety of food: fish (crawfish, shrimp), pasta, roasted veggies, salad bar, swedish meatballs, breads, cheeses, fruit, and dessert of course (reallly good cookies)! It was pretty yummy!

The discotheque Sat night was much better than the night before, I think because we were more comfortable, and slightly more intoxicated... we also requested some American music to lighten up all the damn techno, so it was a lot more fun. It made me excited to go out more in Copenhagen.

After a much better second night, we went back to our cabins, went to sleep, and woke up in Copenhagen Sunday morning!! Overall the trip was an amazing success!!!

I will try and upload pictures soon. I still haven't figured our a fast and efficient way to post lots of pictures at once.