I spent exactly 4 months in Denmark. Four short months which passed with the blink of an eye…and yet somehow I’m sitting here in New York, my real home, almost 3 months after leaving Copenhagen, and I’m not able to let go. It’s ridiculous!

I realize that I created a bubble for myself in Denmark. I lost touch with everyone in the States because I wanted to soak up the Danish culture. I made this blog thinking that I’d update it frequently and fondly read back the entries. I made a whopping 4 entries…but I have memories that’ll last me for a lifetime. Memories which convince me that Copenhagen is where I need to be. I’ve been sorting through all of my options, seeing how I can tweak things so that I can return and I haven’t been able to come up with anything. It’s getting me so frustrated and depressed. I may have only spent 4 months there but something about the place just stuck with me. I may not have partied as much as anyone else. I may not have made everlasting friendships but there are two wonderful people in Hvidovre who have become my second family. It’s been two months since I’ve seen them and I love them to death for still staying in touch with me. I’m terrible at keeping in touch but I know this is one relationship worth keeping. Bottom line is I need to go back. I’ll delay law school, drop some other obligations, but one way or another, I swear I’m going back. Not really sure why I made this whiny post but at least I kinda got my feelings out.

In the meantime though, since I neglected to make entries as things happened, I might reflect upon my times in Denmark by jotting things down in the upcoming days…:)

During our long study tour, a friend of mine brought up a list of 100 things that every omnivore should try at least once so I decided to look it up online. I’ve bolded everything I’ve already tried and I’ve also put any comments in parentheses. Let’s see how diverse I am…and since I’m all about trying new things and learning about different cultures, I hope to complete this one day.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare (I’m not sure how I feel about this one.)
5. Crocodile (I always see alligator or crocodile claws in this chinese supermarket…)
6. Black pudding (…uh..starting to rethink this list…)
7. Cheese fondue 
8. Carp
9. Borscht (Boris, give me some)
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari (YUM)
12. Pho (WAH I MISS PHO)
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses (Hm, what are my thoughts about pungent cheese?)
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns (I wouldn’t be asian if this wasn’t bolded…)
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche (I’m guessing the Americanized ice cream version doesn’t count…)
28. Oysters (Feels like snot.)
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (Not in a bowl…)
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float (I honestly don’t think I’ve ever had one!)
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail (I think?..but I can’t specifically remember a time…so I’m just gonna put no)
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk (Candy)
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala (same as 40)
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads (Does not seem appetizing.)
63. Kaolin (uh…)
64. Currywurst (Will get in Berlin!)
65. Durian (wow I’m not asian..okay I am. it’s just. THE SMELL, man..)
66. Frogs’ legs (SEE, i TOLD you I’m asian..)
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (best things EVER)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain (I’m not sure again)
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini (had caviar, had blini, not together.)
73. Louche absinthe (Will in Prague!..maybe)
74. Gjetost, or brunost (Had a plastic-ie taste to it…)
75. Roadkill (NOT GOING NEAR THIS WITH A 20-FOOT POLE)
76. Baijiu (sigh…not asian again)
77. Hostess Fruit Pie (never had one. what happened during my childhood?)
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini (Hopefully in Venice!)
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash (Had so much of it in Prague.)
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam (I’m not American..)
92. Soft Shell Crab 
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake 
Total count of things I’m 100% sure I’ve tried: 25

…guess I’m not as diverse as I thought  

So I realized that there has been a bunch of stuff that I should’ve made posts about but I’ve neglected to do so. However, I’m in Prague and that’s all that matters for now!
Saturday 2/27 Day 1 (kinda): Silvia, 30 classmates, and 2 DIS faculty hop onto a tourist bus and we get driven to a ferry port in Denmark.
Sunday 2/28 Day 2: At 12AM, the bus drives onto the ferry. that’s right. the bus drove ONTO the ferry. I’ve never seen a ferry transport busses and cars. O_O Ride’s about an hour long…then we hop back on when we’re about to dock, and the bus drives off. AMAZING! So then I try to sleep. I lost count of how many positions I tried to sleep in that night, but dear god, I seriously cannot sleep on a bus. At 10AM, we finally get to Prague and immediately get breakfast, which is…a bunch of bread, sliced meat, sausages, and cake. Also, I saw something called multivitamin juice and expected it to be some disgusting green stuff or something but it tasted like a bunch of juices mixed together. yum! We then proceeded to explore and learn more about the city through student presentations on various topics. So we started walking and every once in a while, we’d stop and some students would talk about the place. I guess it was interesting and informative but someone really should’ve thought about the logistics of 35 college kids trying to hover over 1 speaker on a noisy city sidewalk. Then, my friends and I walked over the Charles Bridge again (beautiful) and explored this prague strøget, if you will, with lots of gift shops which all have the same name and sign..weird. We get back to hotel harmony and then prepare for dinner, which was supposed to be awesome cos it was with local Czechs! They brought us to a cafe and we enjoyed a round of coffees while asking them questions about Czech life. Then, they suggested that we go to this pub for dinner so we’re all like okay well you live here so we trust you. BIG MISTAKE. OMFG. wasn’t their fault but WORST SERVICE EVER. that place. is by far. the worst. dining establishment. i have EVER. EVER. i kid you not, EVER. EVER. stepped foot in. got there at 7, waited til 7:30 to finally order. i was starving that day. STARVING. at 9:30, my friends started getting their food. they ordered schnitzels and steak while i ordered a seafood pasta. i was convinced that it took so long cos they went to catch it or something. except the czech republic is a landlocked country. which proves my theory even more! they drove to germany to catch it or something? seafood pasta is NOT THAT difficult to make. at 10:15 i started to give up and just ate what was left on my friend’s plate. schnitzel, by the way, is DELICIOUS. i left at around 10:45 with no food because my friends all got theirs and finished longg ago so i didn’t want them to wait anymore. omg. i was warned that czech service is bad but nothing could’ve prepared me for this. I used to work at a restaurant, and this is NOT okay.
Monday 3/1 Day 3: Breakfast at hotel again, then David Cerny spoke to us! He’s an artist that does some pretty provocative but highly amusing work. I know that a lot of students didn’t like him, but I kinda appreciated his sense of humor and frankness. Just google image his name…you’ll get an idea of what i mean. We then had lunch at the super expensive-looking Hotel Europa! Our 3-course meal consisted of onion soup, goulash, and apple strudel…not bad. Rest of the day was free time. so my friends and I hiked up a hill in an attempt to get to Prague Castle. I’m still reeling from how tiring it was, but the view made it soo worth it. Turns out Prague Castle is was closed but we saw a nice Cathedral and I had a nice slice of cheesecake at a cafe nearby. We made our way back to the city and I hastily sent in my BA/MA application before heading out to find a suitable restaurant for dinner. My friends and I ended up at a restaurant and i got schnitzel and hot white chocolate! I also learned what beef tartar is…:\…roamed around some more and found a bar that was clearly not for tourists. haha. the 20something people that were in the bar ALL turned their heads and stared at us as we walked in. our image SCREAMS tourist, i guess. looked at the hot chocolate menu. that’s right. the hot chocolate gets its own fricking menu. there were 16 different pictures with descriptions in czech. can someone say dilemma? i just randomly picked an amaretto one. amaretto is like…almond right? yeah, well it tasted like banana.
Tuesday 3/2 Day 4: Breakfast, and then we went to a Czech radio station. PRETTY COOL. this guy spoke to us about the role of the Prague radio during Prague Spring and played clips of news announcements from like 40 years ago. awesome, really puts things into perspective, and gives me a more personal feel to the events we’ve been reading about. then, i got a hot dog and fanta. i also got ripped off. but its prague so…getting ripped off wasnt THAT bad. then, franz kafka walking tour. im just kinda rambling at this point cos its 1:15AM at this moment and i am still exhausted from that hike yesterday and i really want to finish this. kafka was alright, museum was creepyass shit. dinner was at this RIDICULOUSLY fancy place. we all got dressed up. and of course, in true fancy restaurant style, the food portion is the size of a thumbnail. jk. kinda. and NO dessert. wth! so we marched out and i gots me some fudge. bailey’s fudge. BAILEYS. also i had marzipan earlier today. ALMONDY GOODNESS. we then went to the symphony, which, in my not-so-professional opinion, kinda sucked. since we were all nicely dressed, we decided against going to a pub tonight and went for a more classy-looking cocktail-type place. i got a tiramisu hot chocolate. ^.^ and now im here. and tired. and not proofreading/editing. gnites pictures to come…

Food-related!
1. I need noodles/rice. My host dad only eats meat so I haven’t had any asian goodness since I’ve been here. I NEED MY FIX.
2. Pre-Copenhagen – Marzipan= Almondy stuff? Nothing special probably…
Now- ZHOMG MARZIPAN? WHERE? I LOVE MARZIPAN GIMME MORE *SPAZ*
3. Flødeboller and wienerbrød. Nuff said. LAGKAGE IS GOD.
4.  Blackcurrant juice is DELICIOUS. Also, I drink tap water O_O
5. Brown sauce (gravy) must be brown. They’ll put food coloring to ensure its brownness! 
6. A loaf of rye bread would probably kill me if you dropped it 2 floors up.
7. I am not brave enough to try another piece of licorice. I should’ve given up when I read “Salty Fish” on the bag. Who the heck names their candy salty fish?

Other randomness
8. I wish the trust/welfare system would work in the US. Taxes are high but they’re getting so much out of it that it’s more than worth it. I wanna belong in a “tribe”…haha. Shit just isn’t working in the US. If I had another life, I’d live in Denmark :p
9. Everyone who gets close to me starts teasing me at some point…in a loving way of course. but…why is this? Am I a tease-able person? Just wondering.
10. More than half the sports in the Winter Olympics make no sense to me. Thus, I have re-named them! According to sil, there’s sweeping frantically in front of a granite disc, ski-pause to shoot gun-ski some more, skiing while playing tag with poles, and sledding at ridiculous speeds in different positions.
11. Hvidovre (town where I live) sounds kinda like vil-o-aw. 
12. Life is horribly unfair sometimes but just keep swimming, eh?
       12a. But then everything probably works out for the best. Maybe I’m not meant to do that. I have a higher calling?
13. I will now adopt a zero tolerance rule towards “croissants”.
14. I’m convinced my host parents are the nicest, most generous people I’ve ever met. They gave me Chinese New Year money! They’re losing money by having me here, probably…
15. I appreciate Wesleyan more than I thought.  I miss my jobs, spring semester events, typhoon, psychology, coxing, and FOOD.
16. I absolutely suck at keeping in touch with people.
17.  I’m incredibly Chinese at heart.

…i feel qualified to make my first post
So…Copenhagen’s been a lot of fun but I’ve definitely thought about what it’d be like if I’d just gone back to boring old Middletown instead.
First off, it was fricking COLD. this scandinavian weather is driving me nuts. Speaking of which, 3 months ago, Victoria and I didn’t know where Scandinavia was. I tried finding it on a map…oops. Oh how far we’ve come!
But…the people are awesome. I’m sure every country has its rotten apples, but so far, everyone I’ve met has been incredibly generous and kind. My host family is AMAZING. The mere ways in which this society is structured just seems to promote good will and honesty. Money doesn’t really seem to be that big of an issue, which seems to eliminate one giant evil. Despite being heavily taxed, they’re basically covered for what life throws at them and as a result, we see the happiest people in the world! …actually i’ve asked a few Danes about this and they prefer the word “satisfied” rather than happy. In any case, my host parents are incredibly nice to me, to the point where I’m just in awe at their generosity towards a person they barely knew 1 month ago. On the trains and buses, there’s a lot of trust involved in that barely check your ticket. I have not gotten checked since I got here, which means theoretically, I probably could’ve gotten away with not having a pass for the past month. If you’re found without a ticket, however, you’ll get a hefty fine..but even so, imagine if that happened in NYC. People would probably run that risk and barely anyone would have a metrocard. but here, almost everyone spends their money on em anyway.
Also, on some of the parking lots, if there’s a time limit of let’s say an hour..they have this sticker of a clock on their window of their car and they adjust the clock according to when their time is up..so any officers who walk by will know. Trust, eh?
Enough about that. Next up is one of my favorite topics…FOOD. so i thought i would lose weight here cos I’d be disgusted by the food. NOT HAPPENING. So far, I’ve only been grossed out by one thing: liver paté. EEECH..it was an experience though…especially since it’s such a traditional food. Other than that, my host parents have made stuff that I’m used to like pizza, pasta, lasagna, curry with rice…but I can’t figure out if they’re doing it cos they actually eat/like this stuff or if they’re making special things just for me. In which case, I would feel terrible…:\
ALSO, wienerbrød…danishes. YUM. im in LOVE with pastries. but hella expensive. I paid $2.40 for a donut. A DONUT. sure, it was the prettiest donut i ever saw..but still, the prices here make me wanna faint sometimes. A meal at mcdonalds is like 12 bucks. A hot dog is like $4-7. an amazing slice of cake? $10 bucks. *cry* 
I’ve found a new food love. Flødebollers. O.M.G. balls of heaven. I had a coffee-flavored one the other day. gahhhh…speechless…the average Dane has 50 of these orgasmic treats a year. At this rate, i’ll eat enough for 100 Danes. HEHEHE…jk……
then there’s table manners. I’ve had to trade in the bamboo sticks for the silverware…of course, i know how to use a knife and a fork but not THIS properly! one night, we had hamburger and i was thinking YES i get to use my hands. NOPE! they knifed and forked that stuff, man! same thing happened with pizza. and sushi. SUSHI. You think about that one! but psh, in a few months from now, im gonna be rockin’ the knife and fork all elegantly. psh.