Overdue ramblings

Hello, hello, hello!

I have been meaning to get this blog post written for probably a week and a half now. However, my poor mono-laden self has more than a little trouble actually getting things done these days.  Perhaps I should back up. Here we go...

I left my Newton home in a sad farewell the morning of Monday, Aug 22.  Though I was anxious to arrive at Knox and begin my senior year, things have been somewhat emotional with my family recently, so we all shed our tears as Abby and Kyle left the night before, and then again as I left that next morning. Abby headed back to  her apartment in Sully so she could settle in before beginning her second year of teaching in Montezuma the next day and Kyle went back to Central College to start his senior year there.  It was sad for us all to be dispersing from Newton, but I'm glad Abby and Kyle are close enough to see each other at least more than they were able to when she was in college at Wartburg.

Anyway, I drove the short 3 hours across Iowa and into Illinois in my rather full Explorer and then one trip at a time, I carried all of my stuff up to my beautiful apartment on the second floor of the nicest dorm building on campus.  I was the first of my roommates to move in so I got to take my sweet time rearranging the room I now share with my roommate and best Knox friend Emma.  Long story short I spent the whole afternoon organizing, arranging and generally falling in love with our apartment.

Tuesday was the first day of tennis practice and even though it was quite warm, I was so happy to be back out on the court.  We practiced hard Tues and Wed, and then Wednesday afternoon I came down with a fever.  I rested, sweated and froze with the fever for 2 days before the trainer sent me off campus to see the doctor. We hoped it was only my body being unable to maintain an appropriate temp after the hot weather...but it turned out to be mono.  I was slightly taken aback as I figured my exhaustion was just from the fever and mono was a little more of a long term inconvenience than I was expecting.  Here I was at Knox solely for tennis preseason and suddenly I was restricted from any type of physical activity for at least 2 weeks.  Not exactly the best way to start my senior season...but at the same time I was very relieved it had waited to hit until I had moved myself in and it was also a bit of a blessing that I had a week and a half to rest before classes start.

I went back to the doctor today and was given another 2 week restriction on running, jumping, pouncing...really anything strenuous.  But at least he did say I could stand in one place and hit balls if I really want to...which I do.  I will miss quite a few meets but I'll do my best to stay patient so at some point I can really get back on the court to play my game.  I have gotten a lot of lovin' from my friends here and friends and family back home. Thank you thank you for that! The cards bring lots of smiles to my face

On a completely different, and more important note, my father is improving!  My mom writes so eloquently in her caringbridge page for my dad that I know my update won't do it justice  so feel free to check out her writings if you haven't already! (http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/samclark1/journal )  Things were a little nerve-wracking at home when I was there before Knox because dad was definitely not himself and all we could do was wait for the trip out to Duke University.  He was sleeping a lot, talking little, and in quite a bit of pain.  It was so hard to see him suffering like that.  Thankfully the North Carolina trip can just in the nick of time and my mother was strong enough, mentally and physically, to get the two of them there safely.  On Thursday they had very hopeful appointments with the doctors at the Brain Tumor Center.  On Friday, Aug 26th, which was dad's 61st birthday, he got his first treatment.  They pumped him full of two specific types of drugs while he peacefully slept.  One of the drugs is supposed to cut off the tumor's vascular growth (which is how it survives) and the other is supposed to kill the cancerous cells.  He received the first treatment there, and then we will receive the same thing again in Iowa every two weeks until they are supposed to go back to Duke in mid-November.  After the treatment on Friday, mom and dad had to book it out of North Carolina due to the impending storm. They made it home late Friday night and were met by Abby and Kyle at the airport.  Although the meds did make dad a little sick, they seemed to kick in quickly! Mom has been talking about all his improvements and I sure wish I could see this as it is happening.  Seeing the rapid decline and then later incline in his abilities really makes me step back and contemplate the phenomenon that is the human brain. It is fragile and yet resilient. It is vulnerable, but also plastic (a word used to describe its ability to grow and change) and it can often recreate connections that may seem to be lost.  This close-to-home experience has given me all the more reason to be glad I have chosen neuroscience as my field. It is endlessly fascinating to me.

Well I think this might be a long enough (but hopefully not tooooo boring) post.  Sorry it wasn't more creative- this illness has made my brain a little mushy and dulled my ability to be clever.  Hope it isn't gone for good! Thanks so much to everyone who has been keeping my family in their thoughts and prayers.  We are taking it day by day and enjoying the sweet things in life!

Love to all.
Rachel

Saying goodbye is hard to do

So my internship is officially over. It has been over for almost a week now...I just haven't gotten around to writing about it.  Saying goodbye to all of the friends I made this summer was possibly the hardest set of goodbyes I have ever had to do (oh wait, just 3 months ago I had to leave Denmark...so I kind of take back that statement).  Nonetheless, this was really REALLY hard.  I can't believe I made such good friends in just 10 weeks.  I think it was because I was living, eating, breathing with these people during all the time that I was not in the lab (which actually wasn't that much during the last few weeks because I started staying later and later in lab to bear down as my project came to an end).  I have to say the whole summer was way more amazing than I would've expected...and I even learned a bunch too (which is important for this thing called college and this other thing called my future career).
Here's a run down of the important decisions I made this summer:
   To go to grad school (assuming I get accepted)
   To go to grad school for neuroscience (rather than for psychology or something fun like painting, which I can't do for the life of me so that was never actually an option)
   To go to grad school somewhere close (by close I mean the general midwest area...somewhere driveable...definitely not europe :(
 
All of those decisions result in these consequences:
   I have to take the GRE soon (sometime before sept 30)
   I'll be studying for the GRE during pre-season  (which starts in just 2 weeks!!)
   I'll be beginning applications for grad schools during fall term and hopefully will have them all done by mid November (yikes!!)
 
But in general, despite the scariness of the things to come, I am quite excited about this whole grad school process! I truly did enjoy my research experience this summer and I imagine grad school will have even more exciting and challenging opportunities.

Ok I need to stop sounding like a poster child for grad school.

My life right now consists of hanging out with my family as much as possible and then tomorrow I will leave for a 5-day vacation in Washington D.C. where I get to stay with Emma (my knox roomie!!) and see the Larsens, my host family from Denmark.  How fortunate! After I return, I'll have a little over a week left in Newton and then it's off to Knox for pre-season.  I think I need to get some tennis playing in there somewhere.

Also, if you are interested in updates on my dad (and haven't seen this website yet) you can visit an awesome site my mom made:  http://www.caringbridge.org/vi​sit/samclark1
His tumor has begun to grow back (after surgeries, radiation and chemo) so we are currently waiting for an appointment to be scheduled at Duke University for an extensive evaluation and then we are hoping he can be a part of whichever clinical trial they think is best.  As my mom says "We are swinging for the fence!" (my mom is particularly fond of sports metaphors)
We are staying really positive, but we are also on edge, just waiting and watching and praying and hoping.  On the bright side, I played tennis with him a few days ago and although his motor skills have definitely been affected by the tumor, he still had some serves that aced me!

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers you have sent our way.  They mean a lot to us.

That's all for now! Take it easy and stay cool out there.  

P.S. If you want to see a short video I made with photos of the summer, check out this link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v​=B8a_F60IHt4

I survived my first official, somewhat-long research presentation. And thankfully, so did everyone in the audience.

Well friends, this has been quite a week.  My whole summer so far has been leading up to yesterday (Wednesday) and next Wednesday.  If you don't recall, I am interning in a Neuroscience lab at the University of Iowa this summer.  I have been working on a project focused on language acquisition and the possibilities and limitations of a specific process of mapping word-object associations, called fast mapping.  Every Wednesday and Friday we have "morning meetings" in Neurology.  Someone gives a presentation and then we have some time for discussion and questions.  They are always very interesting; there might be a presentation on a case study, a research project, or even just a research idea. I knew from early on that at some point I would have to present on the work that I have been doing.  That "some point" was yesterday morning.  This was kind of a big deal.  I realize it was a fairly informal setting, which about 20 people that I sort of know...but it was still 45-minute long of me presenting background on the topic that I was supposed to know like the back of my hand and presenting all the details of my experimental procedure, which I was supposed to know like the inside of my eyelids, and finally I got to present some data that we had just gotten the day before.  This might explain why my Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights were filled with late hours in the lab (except Sunday, when I was on my bed with literature piled around me instead of at my desk in the lab), a powerpoint that got prettier as each hour went on...and possibly some tears (not too many, but I will admit it was a little stressful.  And in my world, stress = tears or banging my head on the wall.  I almost always opt for the tears).

So finally, yesterday morning rolled around and while I was nervous, I actually felt very good about all the work I had done.  I only had dry mouth and sweaty palms...but it's not like I passed out of had an awkward voice crack. Oh wait, I did have an awkward voice crack.  Oh well.  I am pleased to announce that the talk went very well.  I felt confident, but I also had some help from my mentors in answering the tough questions.  Although I felt massive relief when it was finally over, I was also happy to realize that I had really enjoyed the process.  I know that may seem contradictory to earlier when I said this caused me to shed some tears...but even the fact that I went from a near-breakdown state to having a decent powerpoint and feeling confident only 24 hours later brings me a lot of pride and joy.  Assuming the whole grad school thing goes ok, I could see this 'stressful, but awesome' type of experience happening more in my life.  And I hope that it does.

As much as I enjoyed preparing for this talk I have to admit that one of the best things about the presentation was it being over.  I had to run a participant through my experiment yesterday morning and afternoon (which required the help of my good friend, Espresso) but after that I was home free...except that I didn't think I could make it all the way home on my bike because I was so tired, so I just rod over the Old Capitol Square and laid in the grass.  It was a nearly swelteringly hot day, but when I laid in the grass, in the shade, I could actually feel a soft, cool breeze around me and I was out about as soon as my head hit the pillow (a.k.a. an extra shirt I happened to have in my backpack.)  I laid there for about an hour before finally peeling my eyes open, realizing it was still July (felt as though I slept for years) and I continued downtown to search for a store to mindlessly wander around in.

I found the perfect one.  I don't remember what it was called, but it was something like Artisan's Art Shamanananalala.  Seriously, I don't remember its name, but it was awesome.  All the work is by individual artistis, some local, some from further away and there is jewelry, decorations, scarfs, woodworking, photographs, paintings, sketchings,  and even more.  The whole store was full of eye candy and I spent a good amount of time just perusing each display case.  I found at least 5 pairs of earrings that I "can't live without"  and a few necklaces that would be way too expensive for now, but extra awesome to have later...when I grow up and have a real job and all that stuff.

After my peaceful perusing of the lovely Art store, I headed to my hair cut appointment.  I have a problem where my hair grows to this awkward length and I begin to despise it.  That was happening at the beginning of this week.  I finally discovered the solution-- get it cut!  I went to this awesome place in Iowa City that I had just found by random google chance and it was nearby enough that I could ride there.  It was so cool! The shop is inside of this old, interesting house and most of the equipment was salvaged and repaired so the chairs don't match and the decorations are all a little bizarre...and I loved it.  They played great music and it just had a real welcoming feel.  The girl who did my hair was fantastic.  She took off so much weight (my hair is so thick you just always have to lighten it up by getting rid of a bunch and texturizing it) and she framed it very nicely around my face.  I felt like a whole new person when she finally got done blowdrying and straightening and I was able to look in the mirror.  Seriously, why do I ever let my hair get to that awkward length.  I like this so much more!  I'll post a pic if I'm able to...just so you don't feel left out from the excitement.

As for now, I better get off the computer and get to work!  As always, thanks for reading :)

No longer on earth but forever in our hearts and in heaven, smiling and wagging that finger

It's Friday night and right now the world revolves around Donnellson, Iowa.  I am at Liza and Dennis's house (parents of my cousin Hannah who has made many appearances in this blog).  I am eating delicious Seyb food, drinking Saranac beer (a lovely Summer Brew), listening to the peaceful folksy funeral soundtrack we just created for tomorrow's service, and being comforted by the rolling chatter of friends and family as we are together to celebrate the amazing life of my Grandma Audrey Seyb.  After a difficult struggle with multiple myeloma that lasted many, many more years than anyone expected (she is one tough cookie!!), she finally decided it was just as well to head on up to heaven and meet up with my Grandma Darrell, who has been there since last March, waiting patiently for his love to join him.  We miss him greatly and the world will never be the same now that the two of them are gone....but I am quite sure they are happy frolicking around (probably square-dancing) on those glistening streets of gold.

Never in my life have I needed heaven to be real as much as I do right now:  I need to know that she is smiling and laughing and experiencing the joy of being young and healthy.  I can feel that she is.  I am quite sure she is chatting up every single person she passes by, whether she knew them once or not.  That is just the way Grandma was.  


(skip ahead to now, which is Sunday afternoon. Still sitting at the Seyb house, most of the commotion has gone down, but we are enjoying food and laughter)

We had the most lovely funeral service yesterday. So many quirky Grandma stories that made us smile and laugh and tear up a little.  We were touched by all the people who were there to share their memories and give us comforting hugs and words.  Most of the relatives are on their way back to work, school, home, ect.  Kendra and Ed are traveling back out to Las Vegas; Hannah will soon be flying back to Boston; Aunt Pam and Uncle Jim hit the road a few hours ago, bound for their New York home; and I will soon make the short trip back to Iowa City.  It is strange to be here without Grandma Audrey, and it will be more strange to return to normal life knowing life in Donnellson will  never be the same.  At the same time, I couldn't be more thankful for the family I do have here and we will certainly continue all the wonderful family traditions, thinking of Grandma and Grandpa at each holiday, birthday and random get-together.

Safe travels to all my family on the road and in the air right now.  You guys are seriously the best and I love you bunches.

Oh, and thanks to everyone else for reading :)  Hopefully I'll get back on in a few days and fill you in on Real World: Iowa City (the TV show we think we are unknowingly starring in because we are just so entertaining in all of our researching and adventuring.)  Happy Sunday!    

Far too long

It has been far too long since I have written anything, wouldn't you say?  I can hardly believe we are nearing the end of June already.  I am halfway through my summer internship, which is unbelievable for two reasons: it doesn't feel as though I have been here, doing research, coming to work at the lab every day for five weeks already...but at the same time, it feels as though the friends I have made in the past 5 weeks have been my friends for years.  I guess that is what happens when you live in close proximity, share a mutual passion for science, and spend hour upon hour, day after day, in a lab either staring at a computer screen or sniffing chemicals (as for me I stare at the computer screen and sometimes I convince myself that I can actually feel my cognitive processes fading away).  Back to the main point...5 weeks done, 5 weeks left.  Crazy.

Like I said, it's been such a long time since I have written anything in here.  For some reason it seems much harder for me to put together a decent post now; it's not that my life is boring, but I do feel as though the things that I do now are much more run-of-the-mill than all of my previous exciting travels and I am just not certain you want to hear me ramble about watching American tv, eating American food and speaking English all the time.  I think I am subconsciously burdened by a need to compete with Denmark Rachel.  Maybe if I just use all of the right words I can make my Iowa City life seem almost as glamorous as my Copenhagen life.  It's worth a try.

Although this summer is full of research, studying for the GRE (ick!), planning my senior research for next term and generally being scared silly about my impending and inevitable future, I am also doing my best to make time for a bunch of really awesome activities.  For one thing, I have been riding my bike (whose name is Lyle, by the way) as much as possible.  Not only can I get to work in less time than it takes on the bus, it also wakes me up every morning to coast through the fresh air, feel the mud splash on my legs (I usually don't see mud puddles until Lyle is too close to them) and blare my special biking playlist into one ear (have to keep one ear open for important things like traffic, of course).   Besides just riding to work, I have also spent some time on the nice Iowa City bike paths with friends.  I think the most memorable moment I have had on a bike ride so far was getting hissed at by geese who were literally taking up more than their fair share of the bike path.  My friend Dan and I were just passing by, on our bikes, as nicely as possible and apparently the geese were really not pleased with us.  Is it reasonable to be scared of an animal 1/8 your size when you are on a hefty machine made of metal and gears?  No, probably not, but that doesn't mean I had any desire to stick around to see what would happen in the face-off between Lyle and the goose.  Lyle and I booked it out of there, with Dan and his bike (Lexi) following close behind.


Another thing I am desperate to do this summer is dance.  I have already gone to a few Zumba classes here and although it is fun, I am disappointed that no one has lived up to my previous Prairie City Zumba experiences.  I enjoy going to these classes but they make me really want to either be back at Kat's class or teaching my own class.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that I can teach Zumba at Knox.  It would just  be so swell.  We'll see.
 
And now for some actual dancing, I recently found out that a few of my hallmates can swing dance.  It just so happens that I LOVE swing dancing.  I searched and searched and searched for swing dancing opportunities in Iowa City and was lucky enough to come across a group that swing dances in downtown IC every Thursday night.  Naturally, I was ecstatic so after work last Thursday I got all dolled up, grabbed some friends and headed downtown.  Although I rarely wear skirts, for this special occasion I had on a high-waisted skirt, leggings, gold flats and a big flower headband.  I looked like I just walked out of the forties, which is pretty appropriate for a night of swing dancing.  Unfortunately, no swing dancing was to be found and my friends and I ended up in a bar eating appetizers and playing darts (still in my dancing garb).  Although the lack of dancing made me want to cry (and I wouldn't deny it if someone claimed they actually had seen a tear or two on my cheek), I am really glad my friends were there so I didn't have to go to a bar by myself and wash away my disappointment with a few too many Shirley Temples.

The failed night of swing dancing has made me more determined to find somewhere to ballroom dance.  I think I might give the Senior Center a try...apparently there will be Tango tonight and salsa tomorrow night.  I'll keep you updated.

I forgot to mention- the reason I am obsessed with dancing this summer is because I am lined up to be the president of ballroom club next year. YIKES.  I gotta learn some sweet moves before I can stand in front of everyone and pretend like I know enough to teach them.


I realize this is a pretty short post compared to some of my abroad posts but I am supposed to be having a meeting soon and since I am getting paid for my real job and not paid to sit around sending my thoughts all over the interwebs, I should probably skidaddle.  Who knows, maybe next time I won't wait 4 weeks before writing.

As always, tak for reading and enjoy your day!

New obsession: Charleston dance craze

I basically want to be all of these people combined. Too bad I wasn't born in the roaring 20s.
Give it a looksee.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIQ23ZQ84Mg&feature=related  

The Life of an Intern

I wish that I could say that I haven't written for so long because I have been so gosh darn busy.  And I could say that...it just wouldn't be quite true.  I have work Monday-Friday from anywhere between 7:30 and 9:00 until 4 or 5 and although I have plenty to do at work, the evenings are pretty much mine for the taking.  Thus far I have been cooking yummy dinners, watching Modern Family episodes online and hanging out with the awesome people in my program.  Those things combined have left little time for important things like writing in my blog.  I think I need to work on my priorities :P

Ok now I'll get down to the real point of this, I am having a great time.  It has only been two weeks and I have already become quite good friends with most of the people in my program.  2 weeks is never enough time for me to make friends, but that's how long I have been here so I guess these people must be really special.  I think I have earned a reputation with them of being the odd girl who loves Zumba and hacky-sack a little too much and somehow makes everyone laugh without really trying (mostly they laugh at me and my oddities but its laughter nonetheless) and apparently they still like to spend time with me so that is good :)
So far we have spent a day at the Coralville lake, made some dinners together, danced some Zumba and salsa (who knew I'd get to dance with a Puerto Rican who is really good at it!?!), played hacky-sack, gone to the movies and walked around downtown Iowa City.  Meeting these people has also reminded me of what a small world this is.  I have some type of connection with almost everyone here.  3 of them even studied in Copenhagen at DIS in the fall and know some of the Knox students who were there!  I have to admit I love having people around to reminisce with about pastries and øl and Tivoli and host families and the few words and phrases we actually remember from dansk class.  It's nice that someone else can appreciate the map of Copenhagen that I have hanging on my wall right now.  All in all I am very pleased to be living with these people and getting to know them as we all experience this summer of research.

As for the actual research aspect of this internship, so far I really like it but it is not quite what I pictured.  I do work in a basement lab (which is about what I expected) but so far it has not been crazy, hectic, stressful and full of actual research.  Since we are in the beginning stages of this research project I have been reading. And reading. And reading. And.....highlighting, annotating, questioning and searching for even more more articles to help me get informed on our project.  Want a really brief explanation of the project?  If yes, read the next paragraph and try not to get mad at me for being boring...if not, skip past it and I will try and be extra witty for you.

The mentor I am working with works part time in the Neurology clinic in the hospital and part time in the Speech and Hearing Center.  Therefore I kind of work part time in each also.  In the Speech and Hearing center there is a nice room with some computers, desks, whiteboards and chalkboards.  Most days I station myself at this large desk with a beautiful apple computer where I sit and look up articles, print out articles, and repeat the process.  My mentor works a lot of memory systems and language development and also with amnesiac patients and their different abilities and inabilities.  A very recent paper was published describing a new theory about the memory systems and how amnesiacs can actually remember a few novel words if taught them in a certain way that seems to bypass the hippocampus (the area that is destroyed in amnesia cases).  Our lab is going to try to replicate this paper with our amnesiac patients and see how far we can push it to say it doesn't work if you do it this way, that way, ect, ect.  Did that all make sense?  Let me know if you want more details. I tried to make it as interesting as possible :)

So this is supposed to be the witty paragraph.  Go figure, I have no more wit left.
(major pause while I go eat dinner)
(major pause while I watch Dexter)
(major pause while I sleep)

Ok, it is morning now and I am back and hopefully wittier than last night.  Here goes
Yesterday while my friend and I were sitting on a bench downtown eating ice cream , an older gentleman who was sitting across from us asks me what kind of ice cream I am having and where it is from, how much it costs, ect ect. Very friendly guy.  I'm guessing he was Iowan (not only because he was in Iowa but because he was so chatty and I kind of think that is a decent generalization to make about older folk in Iowa) Anyway, we continue eating our ice cream and I soon hear the guy stop a young man who is walking by in an Iowa Hawkeye shirt and the following conversation ensued:

Older man: Excuse me, sorry, are you a hawk fan?
Young dude: Yeah, I am. 
Older man:  I have been trying to find someone to ask a question. Can I ask you a question?
Young dude: Sure, what is it?
Older man: I was just wondering, why is Kinnick stadium always so cool?
Young dude: (major confusion) Um..why is it so cool?
Older man:  Yeah, we just noticed that the stadium is always so cool. Why is that?
Young dude:  You mean, cool as in the temperature?  Is it cold in there?  (still super confused and really not sure what to say)
Older man:  Well, it's gotta be because there are always so many fans in there!!  (insert rimshot here)
(I immediately burst out laughing and quickly turn my head so the guy can't see)
Young dude:  Oh! (laugh laugh laugh)  That is a good one.
Older man:  (looking quite pleased with his funny self laughs at his own joke while his wife looks slightly embarrassed to be married to this goofball)
Young dude:  Haha, well you have a good day sir.
And off he went.

Oh, Iowans.

And now I'm off to work!

A simple little ID badge

Hello to anyone out there who is still following my blog.  I really hope this will not be like one of those TV shows that was great while it lasted but really should've just stopped after 2 seasons instead of continuing on for 5 more painful seasons of unnecessary drama and bad jokes.  I'll do my best to maintain a "Friends-like" epicness rather than a "Gilmore Girls" tediousness (no offense to anyone who actually still enjoys that show).  

Anyway I desperately need to do a little reflecting on the recent activity in my life and lucky you, since you are reading this, you will herein be privy to the secret little thoughts floating around and bobbing up and down in the messy liquid in my head. 

Well, I moved in to the dormitory here at the University of Iowa on Sunday, just four days after I returned from Denmark.  Those four days at home with my family were wonderful and relaxing and sentimental with over way too quickly.  You would think that after moving 6 times within the last year I would be a really awesome packer.  But I'm not. Or at least I am not when all I really have to do is transport enough clothes and blankets to last until I make a trip back to Newton for visiting and laundry purposes.  I basically threw the things that I figured I would need into a few boxes, bags and piles and off I went, across I-80, to where my summer adventures awaited.  It didn't take long to move my stuff into the oddly shaped dorm room (I'll have to take some photos so I can post them.  Trust me, it's weird) and then Monday was my first day "on the job".  I am thrilled to be doing research this summer and, as my mentor says, "trying on Iowa as a grad school".  Who knows, maybe after graduating Knox next year I will end up back here to pursue even greater academic goals.   So far this week has been a lot of me sitting in front of a computer, finding articles on our specific research topic and then reading, re-reading, highlighting and scribbling all over them.  I had a meeting with my mentor and another researcher to discuss the experiment I will be helping with and I kind of expected to sit quietly, listening in awe to them intelligently discuss the project.  Those expectations were exactly why my "fight-or-flight" response kicked in to high gear when we sat down and they said to me "Ok, you have been reading these articles.  Tell us what you know."   And thus panic ensued, coursing through my veins, causing me to sweat a little and making me feel my rapid heartbeat all the way in my toes.  Turns out I survived and even did well enough that we were able to come up with a decent plan to get started on the project.  I lived through a moment that I found even scarier than all those times I traveled by myself in foreign countries where I couldn't speak the language and didn't understand the customs.  Phew.

I made a short trip home to Newton today for my mom's retirement party.  I am so proud of her and although Newton High School will miss her a lot...our family is pumped to have more of her for ourselves.  Job well done, Karen Clark...job very well done.  While I was home, I was struck by how much I miss it already.  4 months and I did a pretty good job of not getting homesick.  Then I am gone for four days and suddenly all I want to do is sit at the kitchen table with my mom and pet my kitty and swing in my hammock on a slightly breezy night as the sun goes down.  I was so excited to come to Iowa City this summer that I kind of forgot about all the wonderfulness of summer that I will be missing.  The times they are a-changing.  And although I will continue to go with the flow, that doesn't mean I can't take a minute to just miss the good times of years past.  Newton never looked so beautiful as it did tonight as I stood in my driveway and stared at the sunlight that streamed on to all the front lawns on our street.  No matter how far away I go and how many places I go to (10 countries in the span of 5 months, for example), Newton will always be home and home always as that special feel that you simply can't get from anywhere else.  

Onto the next topic, now that I am an official "student researcher" at U of I, I have an adorable little badge with my photo and my name and my id number.  It has a handy clip so every morning I clip it onto one of my pockets and walk around like I am really hot stuff.  It's funny how a simple little ID badge can make me feel way more grown up.  I was walking into the hospital the other day to go to the Neurology department and one of the very nice ladies asked if I needed help finding anything.  She suddenly saw my badge and said "Oh! You work here."

I was pretty pleased with myself with that, feeling like a fancy big-shot hospital employee...until I realized I had to admit "Well, yes I do but it's only my second day so can you help me find the Neurology clinic?"  (big smile from her) "Yes, of course.  It's right through these doors."

Me, the suddenly blushing, not so big-shot little undergrad student said "Thank you" and walked to Neurology.  I may have had a slightly shaken confidence but at least I still had my ID badge : )

I have officially surpassed my normal bedtime.  My extended jet lag has been wiping me out by 10:30 each night and it is currently 11:56 pm.  It has been over a week since I have been back in the states so I really should be normalized to the time here but for some reason my internal clock has insisted on staying just a little off, as if it knows I am back in America but it doesn't want to actually admit it.  

Ok ok internal clock, you win.  I'm off to bed.  Godnat!

"You're all set. Welcome back Miss Clark..."

...said the customs officer who checked me in at the Chicago O’Hare Airport.   I am officially on American soil, well, sort of.  I am sitting on a chair that is on some blue carpet that is on the floor of the airport and this airport building is undoubtedly placed on a concrete foundation that is firmly situated upon American soil.  So, yes, I think I am on American soil.  

I am happy to be home but leaving Denmark was maybe the hardest thing I have ever had to do.  I know that I will return to Denmark to visit my family, explore the city more and enjoy endless pastries, but the whole “living and studying” there is over.  And that is terribly sad.  I don’t tend to get very stressed when I travel but I suppose today I was especially vulnerable and I cried the whole way through security and then I even cried while watching the end of Finding Nemo.  Yeah, that’s how bad it was.  But I am here now and with just one more short flight I will be in the arms of my family.  And for that I am incredibly excited.   

I'll give you just a few reflections before I have to pack up my computer once again, stuff it in its case, reload my multiple bags on my little body and make my way onto the plane. 

My first thoughts upon reentering the states?  There are just so many Americans here.  And there is so much English.  It is weird not to say “Sorry, I speak English” before talking to someone. It is nice, I guess, but my ears already miss the Danish sounds. 

Now, this next reflection might sound offensive but I promise that I love all of you Americans who are reading this so it is not directed toward you.  In the past 10 hours I have been struck over and over by just how nice Americans are…and also how incredibly annoying they are!  Perhaps I am especially biased but it always seemed like the Americans who were complaining about little things or talking about themselves (loudly) or acting like they were the most important person in the room.  And of course, when one American acts like he/she is so great, then the other Americans grumble and snootily say, “Gosh what makes you so special? Why do you get to get out of the plane first?”  

Good god, Americans, just slappe af!  (a common Danish phrase meaning ‘relax!’)

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I wrote the above post from the airport but I didn't have internet there so I couldn't post it.  Now I am at home, in my comfy bed.  I have been with my family for the past 10 hours and for those 10 hours I have not had to deal with any annoying Americans, just the absolutely wonderful Americans who I was so happy to see I couldn't even shed a tear, who chatted with me and listened to me chat the entire way back to Newton, and who stayed up super late with me to open souvenirs and laugh at the massive amount of candy that I brought home.  Let's just say, it was been one hell of a good homecoming.  

I was wide awake all through the last part of my trip and up until midnight last night (which would have been nighttime up until 7:00 am back in Copenhagen) so I thought "Well, geeze I am pretty great at this not getting jetlag thing."  Well it is now 5:30 am and I am awake enough to have turned my computer on and started writing this instead of just going back to sleep.  That is certainly not normal! Unfortunately, I guess that means I am not as perfectly exempt from the crazy amount of messed-up that everyone warned me I would feel.  Nonetheless I will try to go back to sleep now and wake up again in two hours or so.  If that doesn't work I guess I might be back on here to ramble some more : ) 

Vi ses!

And the sky is still light

I was just walking back home from the train station (for the last time) and I was struck with just how light is still was.  It was just after 11 and it looked more like 9:30.  The sky was mostly grey from clouds but on each side there were large areas of vibrant blue...not sky blue, but a cerulean-type blue.  It was amazing.  This made me realize just how far north I actually am right now and have been for the past four months.  Light in the sky at 11 is definitely not something I will see in Iowa this summer.  Don't worry, I savored it as much as possible.

So now I am laying in bed, not wanting to go to sleep because sleep makes time go faster and I only have a few hours left to live in Denmark.  Do I really want to waste those hours by sleeping?  Well...maybe some of them. But first I will do the obligatory get-you-up-to-speed on all the things I have not yet.

I left off in the middle of the deer park.  Did my pictures show you enough of how awesome it was??  At least 25, maybe more, deer in the middle of a field.  We got so close to them before they got a little spooked and ran.  What made it even more surreal was that the park was so quiet that the only noise was coming from our footsteps on the crunchy twigs and leaves.

Here is a close up of a few of the deer

After enjoying the presence of the herd of deer, we continued our bike ride.  

And then we went to Bakken (the old amusement park) for a bit.  We rode one roller coaster and then we parted ways. Delayna hopped on the train to take her home and I rode the 10ish km back to my house.  It was a tough ride (lots of wind, lots of tired legs) but I was very satisfied by the time I finally made it.

Friday night I went out salsa dancing and then to a funky little club in what is known as the "meat packing district".  Gotta be honest, I don't really know the story of the meat packing district.  It's just a very industrial part of town that really gets hopping on the weekends.  We met up with my friend's friends at the train station and then to get to the club we...are you prepared for this?-- rode on the back of their bikes (and yes, they were slightly intoxicated!)  Sorry Mom!  So there I am, in a skirt and tights, riding on the back of a bike through the city.  You might be picturing a sweet motorbike but remember, this is Copenhagen.  It was just a legit, 6-gear city bike.  On the bright side, I did hold his beer for him so it's not like he was actually drinking and riding.

But we survived!  And it was actually a little fun.  Go figure.

Saturday was the long-awaited caramel-making day.  My Grandma Audrey (my mom's mom) has forever been the queen of caramels.  They are just these amazing homemade caramels that she made every Christmas.  I swear she made at least 25 pans some years.  In the last few years my mom has taken over the caramel tradition (though she thankfully sticks to less than 20 pans) so this is a tried and true Seyb/Clark recipe.  I brought some of these famous caramels to the Larsens when I first arrived in Denmark and this spurred them to ask for the recipe a few times.  Just last week I finally asked my mom for the recipe and once she sent it we went about finding a substitute for the American corn-syrup and converting measurements to the metric system.  I was a little nervous to be in charge of the making of these because I have never actually made a batch.  I have always only watched my mom do it.  Everything went splendidly but I was so nervous to burn them that I finished the cooking a little early and we ended up with very soft, very delicious, caramels. Definitely not at all a failure. I would even dare to call it a great success...at least it appears that way because all of the caramels have been eaten by now : )  I think the Larsens are excited to make the caramels themselves so they can get the consistency just right.  I am so pleased to have brought the recipe over here and now it will live on!

Rebecca being my stirring assistant 

Finished product!

On Saturday we also had a special dinner and exchanged "going-away" gifts.  The Larsens gave me the most beautiful book with photos of Copenhagen taken from above.  It is so cool to flip through it and now that I have been to so many of the places and now I can tell my family all about them.

Saturday night was also full of excitement because it was the Eurovision song contest!! (which is a pretty big deal over here, not surprisingly)  We got to watch the final 25 countries perform their songs and then each country called in with their votes.  I actually fell asleep during the voting process but I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the countries' performances.  I even bought a few of the songs on itunes afterwards because I liked them so much : )

Sunday was full of packing and playing soccer and having my final lesson in making Danish pancakes.  I think (I hope!) that I am now skilled enough to try making them back in Iowa.  If anything goes wrong I can always try and skype with the Larsens to get a refresher on how to flip them or how much flour to use.

That brings us to Monday.  Hmm..what was Monday?  Oh wait, that was just yesterday.  I guess I stayed home and packed for a while and then I went to the city to take my books back.  I found some friends and ate lunch with them and then we did a little shopping.  I know, I didn't really need more stuff for my suitcase but there was one shirt I couldn't stop thinking about so I went and bought it.  I guess a few European items of clothing will help me remember my time even more :)

And then last night I just got to spend some very hyggeligt time with the family, playing soccer, making pizza, easting the delicious pizza we made, and playing at least 6 games of Sequence with Jesper.  I couldn't have asked for a better 2nd to last evening.

Today.  Today was my final day in the city.  Lauren and I went out for lunch at the super cute coffee shop I keep talking about and then we did a tiny bit of shopping before heading to the Closing Ceremony, which was full of great music, good speeches, and nostalgic memories about the place we are leaving behind.  Afterwards I bought my last pastry, took my 2nd to last train ride home, had my last dinner with my family and finished packing.  Then I went in to the city for the final DIS party, where I danced a tiny bit but mostly just ate peanuts and said good-byes.  I can't lie and say that wasn't hard.  It certainly was.  And the train ride home was quite difficult too.  I listened to my "Denmark faves" playlist on my ipod and stared out the window at the darkness passing by.  It's hard to explain all the emotions that ran through my head during those 20 minutes.  The sad thing is that this part of my life will be over soon.  I will never again live in this house in Denmark (probably never live in Denmark again) and I will never get to experience the city in quite the same way.  But there is always a silver lining and that is that I will be back someday.  I will be back to visit, with my family, and I will see the city again and I will take great pleasure in feeling as though a part of me is coming home.

I feel as though I should have had a "What do I miss most about America? post" or a "What will I miss the most about Denmark?" post.   I didn't even really think of that until today when Andreas asked me what I miss from America besides my family and it took me quite a while to come up with any sort of answer.  I did say Emma, my roommate, of course...but she kind of counts as family to me.  Jesper helped me out and said "the candy". Well, that is kind of true.  I would really love to sink my teeth into some swedish fish right about now.  But Karina also helped by saying something like "You have what you need in Denmark."  That is so very true.  Not only do I have the basics like delicious food, clean water and the other luxuries of America, but I also have a great family to hang out with, a cat to snuggle with (when he is in the mood) and two awesome kids to play with. Oh and I even had peanut butter for most of the semester! I certainly do have what I need and the family aspect, in particular, is mostly what has made this semester so great.

I guess I should sign off for now.  Since this will probably be my last official post while I am in Denmark, I shall make it as official as possible.

I thank you so much for joining me on this journey.  I hope you have been entertained by and engrossed in my various stories. I hope I have helped to provide cultural-knowledge and the basic Whats and Hows of studying in another country.  I hope I have portrayed accurately not only how much fun I had this semester, but also how much I have learned and grown as a person.  I have had to do a lot of thinks on my own while I have been here, but that has given my a great chance to get to know myself better and to be confident in my abilities (still haven't gotten lost in an airport...knock on wood!!)  Thus I hope you have enjoyed the journey as much as I have and please let me know if you are ever headed to Denmark...I will have lots of tips and tricks to give you!

Again, the blog won't stop! It maybe will for a few hours tomorrow when I am flying over the ocean, but after that I will post whenever I think I have something interesting to say (which seems to be a lot. Whether it is true that it is interesting is not as much my concern : )  So check back when you get the chance!


Vi ses!.  

I just came to say Hello!

First of all, this song has been one of my staples while in Denmark.  I didn't know it before I came here so I am pretty sure whenever I hear it (which better be a lot this summer) my thoughts will be magically transported back to Copenhagen and all the places I heard the song: birthday parties, friday night bars, dance clubs, jumping on the trampoline and playing garden soccer.  Yes, future roommates better be ready...you might hear this song a lot :)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYQBptoNvp0&feature=related

Anyway, today was the last official day of DIS.  I am heading into the city soon for our last party.  I don't think I will stay long since I have to be up at 5 for my day of travel but I definitely have some teary goodbyes to share with friends.  I still have more Denmark-related stuff to write about (hopefully that will happen tonight!) and then I am thinking that a lot of reflecting will happen once I am back in the states so if you are interested, stay tuned for some insightful, humorous, sappy or otherwise emotional posts.  It is fantastic to have an audience, but even if I don't, I love writing this blog because it is a time where I can spill my thoughts in a somewhat organized manner and not be graded (at least not to my knowledge) on it.  I love entertaining people (which I hope I have succeeded at!) and I also love recording stories because often times my mind doesn't do such a good job of the latter.  The point of that was: my blog will not stop! Hip hip hooray! :P

Also, I wanted to thank everyone who has tuned into this blog from the DIS Study Abroad Student Blogs website.  Because I check my stats (which I realize is kind of a weird thing to do, but it is fun and gives me a bit of a self-esteem boost sometimes ) I know that quite a few people each day do log on to read my thoughts because of the link of the DIS website.  I am not sure when that website will stop showing updates of my blog so all of you out there are more than welcome to continue following even when the DIS page stops showing you that I have posted more.  Also, if any of you are interested in DIS and have questions, post them here or email me at raclark@knox.edu  I have lots of stories and advice I can dole out!  After all, I have been here for 4 whole months : )  So hit me up!

And of course, I must send an official thank you to DIS before they all stop reading my blog (which they may have already) but it has been a truly wonderful experience and thank you for having this whole blog dealio because it helped me a lot before I came over here to Denmark!

Ok, off to drink some wine, dance to some music and shed some tears.

Just thought I'd leave you with a cute photo :)

The whirlwind that has been my last week in Copenhagen

My last full week in Copenhagen started off with a day in Tivoli, which I wrote about in the last blog.  I cannot get over what a beautiful place the whole area is.  Not only is Tivoli an amusement park, but it also is many, many gardens and also a stage for entertainment and a lovely lawn to relax on.  While we were there, after we had enjoyed some ice cream, we sat and watched a bunch of bands perform.  The really cool thing is that they were all under 18 years old...and most of them were really good!! Here is just one example :)

 Sorry for the extraneous singing and laughing, I was really enjoying the song :)

We stayed in Tivoli until all the beautiful lights were lit up.  That is probably the most beautiful night scene I have ever seen.  Sorry I couldn't capture it with my camera.

The next day was when I left for Oslo.  Before the trip I sat in the cutest coffee shop ever and wrote some of the previous posts, which I may have mentioned as I wrote them.  And I already posted about the cruise so that brings us to Thursday, when I returned from Oslo.  I did not mention how much dancing we did on the cruise ship on our last night....A LOT!  Therefore, I was very tired when I returned to CPH.  BUT I also had more adventures in store so I took a short nap and then headed into the city.  I met a friend of mine and we embarked on a big bike trip, down to Arken, a museum of modern art.  It is about 20 km from the city and it took us a little while to navigate all the turns but we made it, sweaty and happy, in a little over an hour.

The museum was awesome!! Of all the museums I have been to during my whole trip, this was probably my favorite.  

The actual museum building is an example of deconstructivist design.  It is supposed to resemble a shipwreck.  with a long skinny main hallway and then lots of oddly shaped rooms jumbled onto both sides of the building. It is very open and light, but also a little mysterious and confusing.  Super cool.  

This piece of art has dead butterflies plastered onto different colored paintings.  It is a rather touching work about life and death and the beauty of both of them.  

Also butterflies. 

It was hard to capture how awesome this was but it was a pool of water with a light in the middle.  When the water moves and makes waves, the waves are reflected on the white walls surrounding the pool.  Chau (my friend) and I had a blast messing with the water and watching the cool designs it made on the wall. 

Abstract art by the Danish artist Asger Jorn.  He painted a huge mural all across multiple walls of a summer house and later they took it apart and moved it to the museum.

Pastel drawing by a famous artist...ME
hehe.  At the end of an exhibition about a woman who worked mainly with pastels, there was a room where you could try making your own.  Chau did a lovely sketch of me and I attempted to portray a sunset over the ocean, inspired by the previous day's cruise.

I ended up riding my bike with Chau part of the way back to the city and then I hopped on a train and took it all the way home so I could get there in time for dinner.  Despite the fact that I was exhausted after this, it was a really awesome trip.  Arken, I think, is a must see if you are ever in Copenhagen and enjoy modern art at least a little.

The following day, Friday, I met up in the city with my friend Delayna.  We did some shopping and I found the perfect souvenir for myself (I may have also found some good ones for some other people but those are a surprise!)  My sister would be so proud-- I found a jacket I absolutely loved.  It is a great spring or fall jacket and it looks at least a little grown-up, rather than most of my clothes that look like they come right out of American Eagle (because they do).  It was a little expensive but I know I will wear it all the time AND it is from a brand that we do not have in America.  So I bought it!!  And I am so happy I did.
Anyways, Delayna and I both were very pleased with our finds so we went to lunch and then we took the train out to Klampenborg...which is the same place I road my bike to the day I went up to Louisiana, remember?  It is the place with the deer park and the very old amusement park, Bakken.  We wanted to make the most out of our bikes while we have them so we went on a long bike ride around the beautiful park.  It was a little difficult to navigate because it had just rained and most of the paths we went on were not paved, but it was worth it because we saw at least 50 deer.  I have never seen such a sight.  I tried to capture it on my capture but I am afraid these don't do it justice.

Oops, off to lunch now, back later!

Whelming all over the place

Sorry to overwhelm you with all these posts, but if I don't write them now I fear I never will, and while the memories will always stay somewhere in the tresses and crevices of my mind I would prefer they are also on the worldwide web so I can access them any time I want (which is not always the case when it comes to my mind).

For the most part I will let the photos speak for themselves because especially at this late hour of the night I am not sure my words can do the experiences justice.

1.  Last Sunday Jesper, Karina, Rebecca and I went into the city and climbed to the top of the Christianshavn's Tower

Not at the top yet, but pretty high up!

Ahh Copenahgen from a bird's eye view

Host sister Rebecca and I with very wind-blown hair!

Golden dome.  Story goes each man had to make the difficult climb up to touch the golden dome to prove his manhood.  Pretty sure I proved my manhood on Sunday.

Very interesting roof of the church

Heading back down!

Just too cute of a find not to photograph

Then we had the most delightful picnic on the canal

2. On Monday I went to Tivoli, the amusement park in Copenhagen, with a few friends from class.  Man, I love amusement parks!  I got to ride roller coasters and the thing that shoots you up into the sky and then drops you really fast.  I even got to drive the most jarring bumpercars ever.  Plus, I got cotton candy!! Super fun day all in all :)

Beautiful flowers and fountains all over the place!

DIS friends from my psych class

Woohoo for a super fun day at Tivoli!

 More adventures to come later!

What 12-year old Danes think of Americans

This is the story I have been waiting to blog about for almost 3 weeks but I kept forgetting to do it because I have been doing so many other things also. Finally, it is time.  Be prepared, it's pretty amusing.

A few weeks ago Andreas asked me if I'd like to visit his school for one of their English classes.  Heck yes I wanted to! I was excited to meet his teacher and see all of his classmates again, whom I had met and danced with at Andreas's fødselsdagsfest (birthday party).  So Monday morning a few weeks ago, before I had to go to the city for my Danish presentation, I followed Rebecca to school on our bikes and I met Andreas there.  He took me to his classroom and they took attendance and then the teacher (who apparently was a sub since Andreas's actual teacher was sick) asked Andreas something and he asked me if it'd be all right for them to just ask me some questions about being an American in Denmark.  Of course! (I kind of love to talk about myself).  I hopped up to the front of the room, sat down on a stool, introduced myself since just a few of them didn't already know me from the party and then I waited for their questions.  Once the questions started they did not stop until the whole English classtime was over.  I think I will just try to recreate the best of the the hour-long session of "question and answer with Rachel". 


Also, I will finally make use of the awesome color and font effects that I have here but never think to use.  
Girl Dane
Boy Dane (I don't remember exactly who asked each and every one of the questions, but some of them I do remember specifically...and you might see why) 
Me


Where are you from in America?
I'm from the middle. From Iowa.  It looks a little like Denmark because it is flat and brown in the winter and green in the summer.  


What is your favorite thing in Denmark?
Well I think my host family is my favorite thing:  Rebecca, Andreas, Karina and Jesper (and Tiger).  I also really love the pastries and being able to bike to the city because it only takes 45 minutes. 

What is your favorite type of wienerbrød? (danish pastry)
Um....snegel (mostly because that is the easiest to pronounce)

What is your favorite food? 
Cabbage (but they didn't believe that answer so I had to say:) ok I really love chicken with pasta and pesto. And of course I love pizza. (that answer got approval from all of them)

What is different between living in America and living in Denmark?
Oh, a lot of things.  Here it is nice that I can go to the city every day and I can either ride my bike there or take public transportation.  The public transportation here is amazing!  We don't have that in Iowa.  I always have to drive if I want to go to a city.  It is nice that I can go shopping whenever I go into the city.


Do you like to shop?
Yes.  Maybe a little too much, haha.  


What is your favorite store in Denmark?
Oh, I don't know.  Maybe H & M.  I also like Vera Moda and the department store Illum. 


Do you miss your home?
Yes, I definitely do miss my family, and my cat.  But I really like living with Andreas and his family so I am very happy to be here. 


Do you play World of Warcraft?
No.
Why not?!?!
Um...I just don't really like to play them and I am too busy doing other things, I don't have time to play.  One of my friends plays and he tried to teach me one time and I didn't really like it. 


A little while later in the questions...
What is your friend's name on World of Warcraft?
I'm not sure what his WOW name is but his real name is David.
(the Danish boy then looked very pleased with himself) Oh! I think I know him!!
haha

What do you think of the rules in Denmark? In America you can drive when you are 16 and drink when you are 21. In Denmark you can't drive until you are 18 but you can drink when you are 16.
Well, it was good that I could drive when I was 16 because I had to get to school by myself.  I guess I didn't mind waiting until I was 21 to drink but I think it would be okay to have the legal age be a little younger.


Are you glad you can drink now?  (this was asked by Andreas)
Well yes I do like drinking wine with your mom and dad sometimes at dinner. 


But, Rachel, have you ever drank so much that you got sick? (also asked by Andreas)
UHHHH (picture me turning bright red here) well....um.....uhhh...(i am a terrible liar) yes, one time I did. I drank too much of this very sugary drink and then I danced a lot and it just made me sick.  It's a bad idea...don't do it! (I tried to save it, not sure how good of a job I did)

Thanks for that one, Andreas ;)

Can you speak Danish?
Not very well, I am afraid. I know a little but I wish I could speak it better. It is a hard language.


What can you say in Danish?
(Again, picture me getting red...but I tried my best) Jeg kommer fra USA.  Jeg hedder Rachel. Jeg bor i Bagsvaerd med Andreas, Rebecca, Karina og Jesper.  Jeg er enogtuve.  (and that was about all I could think of on the spot, but the kids seemed pleased with my feeble attempts)

Can you say rød grød med flode? (and all the kids giggled and anxiously awaited my response because that is one of the most difficult things to pronounce)
rud grud meh fleewde (thats about what it sounded like as I tried to push the words out of my mouth, haha)
(Just so you know, that is a typical Danish desert of red berries with whipped cream)

Do you have a boyfriend?
Nope.
Have you never had a boyfriend?  (the following questions are from Andreas)
I have had a few boyfriends. I just don't have one right now.
Do you wish you had a boyfriend?
Not really.  There are too many fun things to do in Copenhagen to worry about having a boyfriend. 
But Rachel, do you ever get lonely? 
Um...(red again) well, Andreas, I guess so. Just a little sometimes. 
And will you have a boyfriend when you get back to the states?
Well, I don't know.  I guess that will depend on if I meet a boy I like or not. 


So now the 5th grade class at Andreas's school knows more about my personal life than my own parents (except now they know too since I'm sure they are reading this ;)  hehe

And now for the even more interesting questions:


How many people have you shot?
(insert super shocked and confused Rachel face)...wait, what?!?
How many people have you shot?
None!
Yes, you have. I can see if on your face. 
Nope, I really haven't. I do know how to shoot a gun but I have only shot clay pigeons (then one boy had to explain in danish what clay pigeons are).  I promise, I've never shot a person.  Is that what you think of Americans?
Well, yeah. In America it is so easy to get a gun, not like in Denmark, so we think you go around shooting each other all the time.
Ok, that is not exactly true. We don't even have a gun in our house. I only know how to shoot because we have a hunting farm.  
I think you guys watch too much American tv and play too many videos games. 


Did you know that America shot Osama?
Yes, I did. I woke up this morning to some facebook statuses about Osama bin Laden being killed.  I am surprised you know. 
It was on the Danish news this morning.  Are you glad he is dead?
Well, I think some people are relieved because they think nothing else will happen to America now, but I still think it sad that we had to kill a person.
Are you scared to fly back to America now?
No. 
But some terrorists have said that if America kills Osama, they will take revenge?
Oh....well, um, I wasn't scared.  But now I might be. 
They have said they will set off the A-bomb.  What do you think of the A-bomb?
Ummm...that is a rather political question.  I think any kind of bomb that could harm innocent people is a bad thing.  (how do you even begin to answer a question like that??)

Do you like Obama?
Yes, I do. I think he is doing about as good of a job as he can.  I think a lot of Americans expected too much of him and now they are upset.  


These kids sure know a lot about the world.
Apparently I do not because the next question was...

Do you like Lars Lokke Rasmussen?
ummmm....who?
Lars Lokke Rasmussen?
uhhhh....well...hmmm... (finally the teacher came to my rescue: He is the president (prime minister) of Denmark.)
Ooooooh! (who looks like a big idiot now? Definitely me)
Well, I don't actually know Danish politics very well (surprise surprise, ignorant American) but from what I can tell it would be good if Denmark gets a new prime minister soon.  

Thankfully they weren't too offended that I was clueless and the girl agreed
I don't like him. We should get a new one soon.


How does it feel to go to a country and everyone just speaks your language? You don't really have to do anything because they all know how to talk to you.
Well, it makes me feel really bad.  I wish that I could speak your language, I really do.  I feel lazy and kind of ignorant (then the teacher explained in Danish what ignorant means) because you guys are so good at english and english is the only language I can speak.  
Then we had a small discussion about how Danish children watch a lot of American tv and listen to a TON of American pop music.  One of the girls has been listening to American music since she was born and that is how she learned most of her english.  Fascinating.  I guess I better start watching Danish tv comedies.

They also asked me a lot of other simple What is your favorite....color? place? thing to do? sport? candy? ect ect, but I think I covered the most interesting ones already.  Those 12-year olds really know a lot more than I expected and they were not afraid to ask anything (especially my own host brother! hehe)  But I figured I better be honest with them because they are growing up quickly and will soon find things out for themselves.

So it was pretty awesome to get to see those kids again and hear what they think of America. Until I came here, I really had no idea how huge America is.  Not only physically (it's gigantic!) but also culturally.  America has a huge influence in many European countries.  However, what I think is even cooler than that is how distinct each European country is even though some of them are smaller than Iowa (Denmark, for example).  Denmark is culturally completely separate from Sweden, Germany, the UK, so on and so froth, even though they are all so close together.  Each country has grown with different events, leaders and political movements.  All of these things have created very unique national identities for each country.

Gosh I love these things that I never would have known if I stayed in the little Knox bubble back in Galesburg, Il : )

That's all for now!