the beginning of the end

So I literally have 1 week left until a leave the place I have called home for the last 4 months. It's unreal, and I had to keep myself from crying when I thought about it today in the car ride home. Copenhagen has truly become my home. 4 months may not sound like a long time, but I did so much more than study here, I really did live here, which made my 4 months seem so much longer. I feel like I have kind of settled here. And now its time to pack up everything and leave.

How do you say goodbye to someone you know you will never see again? It's a strange feeling, really. This past Thursday was my last day at my practicum, and it was really hard to find the right words to say goodbye, because I knew, and they knew, that I would never see them again. I was saying goodbye to Lila, and she actually said to me "so, I'm never going to see you again". It's hurtful in a way that makes you want to apologize for leaving. One little girl, my favorite girl Mathilde, cried when she realized I was leaving. That was really touching. I am going to miss her so much. She is the cutest girl I have ever seen, the epitome of Danish: blond hair, big beautiful blue eyes, and so cute and small (she's about 2 1/2). Every Thursday her face would light up and she would grin as I walked into the classroom. She would immediately put out her small hand for me to take and would say "come. come here!" I wish I could take her with me.

My host family has by far been my greatest experience here in Denmark. Without them, I would have been much more homesick, and I don't think I would've liked it here as much. The Danes are really reserved, so having a close-knit family to come home to at the end of the day instead of going back to a quiet 5 x 9 dorm room, was wonderful. I've learned so much about Danish culture through them, and I really really feel like I am part of their family. Without getting sappy, words really can't explain how much they mean to me, and I know that they will forever be in my heart.

Some things that I am going to miss about Denmark:
1. My host family DUHHHH! :-D
2. Mathilde and Assia at my practicum site. Cutest girls ever!
3. Danish pastries and cakes, aka the bane of my existence and the explanation for my food baby
4. Fløbeller. As Michael says, "what they eat in heaven".
5. Helle, my CMC instructor and one of the most amazing people I have ever met
6. The refugee school in Holland: such an inspiration
7. St. Peter's Bakery and their 12kr special aka the only thing in CPH that I could afford
8.Things being made from scratch: homemade sushi and thai food? That'll never happen again :(
9. The generosity of Danes: they always helped me when I got lost. Some would even come with me to show me the way! In NYC, it would take you 10 mins before you could even stop someone to ask for directions
10. The parks
11. hygge
12. My host parent's cooking esp. their thai dishes! DELICIOUS!
13. The trampoline in our backyard
14. Tea. Though my host parents gave me a teapot and tea for my bday so I'm bringin that back to the States!
15. The colorful buildings
16. The city's european feel, how old it is
17. Cobblestone streets. Though I may not miss this since walking on cobblestone starts to become painful after 2 mins
18. The narrow streets
19. The bike culture, and looking out for bikes instead of cars when crossing the street
20. How proper Danes look while riding a bike (think the 101 Dalmatians)
21. Nyhavn
22. The jam and butter. Though it's clear this is a good thing we don't have this at home, since bread, butter, jam, and cheese are also the cause of my food baby.
23. Room service
24. The misuse of "fun" and "funny" and using a "w" sound when it should be a "v"
25. Being in Europe
26. The long walk from my house to the train station. Okay, sometimes this was a pleasant walk.
27. the Roskilde fjord
28. Istanbul Pizza. Yes, I know I'm from NYC, but this stuff is delicious!!

I could go on but I'll stop here for now.

Prague and Mom's Visit

Okay so it's been about a good month since my mom came but I have yet to post about her visit and my third week of travel break. I know, I'm a bit behind.

So my mom came my second week of break end of March) which was super exciting for everyone: me, my mom, and my host family (my host parents couldn't wait to meet her). Thanks to the generosity of my host fam, she was able to stay with us at our house, which was great. She of course, she brought the wonderful kitchen aid mixer with her. I have told so many people here this story that when I got back from break all my friends asked if she brought it with her. The kitchen aid story: before I got here, I had been emailing my host fam back and forth. In one email, Michael had asked if I could purchase and bring him a kitchen aid mixer (he would pay me back) with me to Denmark, since everything, and I mean EVERYTHING in Denmark is ridiculously expensive. I saw one the other day for 4799DKK, which is about $850, while in the U.S. they run for $200-$300 dollars. Yet, asking me on a whim, Michael did not realize how ridiculously heavy those machines are. So I told him that while yes I could buy one for him, I wouldn't be able to bring it with me when I came to Denmark, but my mom would be able to when she comes in March. Thus the reason why my mom schlepped the gigantic machine with her on the plane from the States! :-D

Anyway, my mom arrived on Sunday, in which Michael and I picked her up from the airport. Michael took all her luggage to the house so that my mom and I could explore CPH for the day. I took her to the city museum, St. Peter's Baker, which is the perfect example of my life here in Denmark, Nyhavn and the Queen's palace, and just walked around a bit. In the afternoon I took her to the fjord in Roskilde which is around the corner from my house.

Tuesday we left for Prague! My mom booked us an apartment in the Mala Strana area of Prague, because she didn't want to stay in a modern hotel, and what a cute little place it was. Mala Strana is an area of Prague that's preserved and people are not allowed to build new buildings there, so everything is very European. Plus we were on the same street as the American Embassy and next door to a police station, so we were in a very safe neighborhood.

We saw the Prague Castle: Gothic-style architecture, HUGE, and very beautiful. Oh, and there were 297 steps to get to it. It is also where Barack gave his speech when he went to Prague, which coincidentally was only 2 days after we were there! We left on Friday and he was there on Sunday! Ahh, I was soo close to achieving my dream of meeting him! :-). Prague Castle is the largest castle complex in the world. They have guards outside that change on the hour. the guards of course are not allowed to move, so it was really funny to see everyone taking awkward pictures with them, including myself. The German troops also marched through the castle gates in 1938 during their invasion of Czechoslovakia, so the place has a lot of history. The cathedral on the grounds, St. Vitus Cathedral was absolutely magnificent and had lots of crypts where of the kindgs of Czech are buried.

On Wednesday we went to the Jewish quarter of Prague where there were the remains of the former Jewish ghetto from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There were 5 synagogues, the Prague Jewish museum, which housed a memorial for the holocaust, and an old Jewish century that had some famous rabbis buried there. My favorite was the Spanish synagogue which was so ornate with all the gold details. Little did we know that we could have taken a tour to the concentration camp of Terezin, about an hour outside of Prague. In the Pinkas synagogue, which is Prague's second-oldest Jewish house of worship from the 1500s, the walls were painted with the names of 77,297s Czech Jews who died in the concentration camps.

That evening we walked over the famous Charles bridge, and got a wonderful view of the Castle at night, which was all light up. Absolutely beautiful.

Thursday, our last day, was more of relaxing and less sightseeing. We went to the mall downtown and did some shopping . We also saw Slumdog Millionaire, which was an experience just trying to get the tickets. The idiotic woman, not woman, stupid teenager I should call her, refused to sell us the tickets because it was an "Indian movie" and because we were speaking to her in English, she decided that we wouldn't be able to understand the movie because it was in Indian. She actually, would not give us the tickets. Seriously. She called over her co-worker, and proceeded to talk about us to him in Czech, explaining that it was in Indian and we wouldn't be able to understand it. I almost punched her in the freakin face. After explaining to the man that most of the movie was in English and that I knew some of it would be in "Indian" (WHICH ISN'T EVEN A LANGUAGE you stupid Czech lady) and yes, I knew that the subtitles would be in Czech, they FINALLY gave us our tickets! Needless to say I was pretty pissed off. WTF?!

A couple of funny things about Prague. 1) The city was filled with high school Italian tour groups. I think all of Italy must have had spring break because every where we went we saw and heard Italian tour groups! I don't think I heard much of the Czech language while I was there because there were so many Italians! 2) There were no supermarkets where we stayed so we had to eat every meal out, which was fine, except that I don't know when the Czechs eat dinner because every night when we went out to dinner, which would be around 8pm (starting time for Europeans) we were the ONLY ONES in the restaurants! Strange. 3) PRAGUE HAS STARBUCKS! the only one in Copenhagen is in the airport and its 8 dollars for the small size. So I was very happy :-)

Prague was very beautiful and it was so nice to be there with my mom. It was her first time in Europe, which was very exciting! We left to go back to CPH on Friday, and spent the afternoon exploring CPH some more. Friday night was August's birthday, so the grandparents were over for dinner. Christina made my favorite thai dish for my mom and the fastelavn cookies for her as well, and it was just really fun and hyggelit (Danish word for cozy). Saturday, my host family and me and my mom went to Christiana, (a mini-Amsterdam), saw the new Opera house and the Little Mermaid. Another hyggelit dinner, and my host parents left bright and early the next day for their skiing holiday. Sunday was my last full day with my mom and we stayed at home, drinking wine and watching t.v. On Monday my mom was off to the airport, and I was off on my European journey to Berlin, Vienna, and Budapest. I couldn't believe how fast the week went by! I only wish she could've stayed longer!