Back to my title, Friday night I was getting ready to leave the house to meet a friend when I heard rain on the roof. I made sure I had my umbrella and waterproof boots and stepped outside. But it was not rain. And it was not snowflakes. I started walking and spent most of my walk to the train station figuring out exactly what was falling from the dark sky. They were little balls of snow that were soft but not really wet...so not quite like sleet and not like hail. They were not sticking on the ground very much because it was still fairly warm out (slightly above freezing that is). At one point I looked at the arm of my coat and decided that it was snowing Dippin' Dots. Do you know what Dippin' Dots are? I'll find a picture to help me describe them. It is ice cream in the form of flavored little balls. Pretty popular at American (and maybe other) amusement parks and the like. Anywho, that is exactly what the sky seemed to be spewing during my whole walk to the train station. It was rather amusing. Therefore, if today was Saturday the first half of this title would not be so inaccurate.
I made it safely back home later with only a train ride and two separate bus rides after which I fell into a deep sleep. Though I still like and appreciate public transportation, I have to admit that it is so much easier to just drive to a friend's house. Darn you, you gas-guzzling convenience.
Yesterday, Saturday, I slept in a little before getting up and cleaning the house and doing homework. My host family came home from Sweden last night and while they were gone I really made myself at home in the living room. I was sleeping, doing homework and skyping from the very comfortable couch, so I finally made myself move my life back down to my room. It was a good thing though because that meant I finally cleaned my room. I had sort of left a bunch of stuff from the study trip just scattered about. Oops. After an invigorating cleaning and some lunch I rode a bike (for the first time in Denmark!) to the post office to pick up an amazing Valentine's Day package from my parents. I felt like such an official Dane, wrapped in a scarf, wearing earmuffs beneath my helmet and gripping the handlebars with gloved hands. It was wonderful. After I dropped the package off at home (tons of candy makes for a legitimately heavy package), I did a little exploring around the neighborhood, still being Danish on the bike. As I rode around I oooh'ed and aaahh'ed at the beautiful houses. Then I suddenly saw three colorful hot air balloons floating in the sky. I so wish I would've had my camera. It was sunny and the red and orange and blue balloons against the backdrop of the baby blue sky just popped out like blooming flowers...oh it could have been a calendar photo for a happy month like May. Therefore, were today Saturday, the second part of my title would have also been much more accurate. Now it is technically Monday so my title is even further off...but I think you get my point :)
Today was again a very nice day and I rode my host bike (hehe I just like to add the word host to anything I am borrowing from my host family) to the station and went into the city for my Sunday Zumba class. One of my friend's who is also from Knox agreed to go with me today. We had a great time and talked about the lovely Zumba class at the Y back in Galesburg that we both have been too (though probably not at the same time). I am happy to be meeting new people, but it is also really really nice to be able to discuss Knox-y things with someone once in a while :)
The rest of my day today was filled with eating candy (both American Valentine's Day candy and Swedish candy my host fam brought me) and studying for upcoming tests. Tomorrow I have an Danish architecture test and Tuesday I have a developmental neuropsychology test. The absolute highlight of my day, however, was skyping with my family. I have gotten a few emails from them lately, since they have been home, but I had not yet gotten to see them. When Abby first got on skype, Dad was taking a nap but before long he woke up and very excitedly saw that I was on skype. We had a really good talk. He still has difficulty getting some words out but he just keeps working at it until he says what he means to say. You can tell that he knows exactly what he wants and his muscles just don't do it the way he'd like them too. We aren't quite sure if the surgeries really changed his senses or if the medications are affecting him but I have to say, this is the most excitable I have ever seen my dad. It is really just a hoot to talk to him. He is so happy and appreciative of everything, from my mom and sister to popsicles to feeling stronger than he did yesterday. He is not at all discouraged, which is amazing, and he just wants to learn as much as possible and word on his speaking and writing. As I was studying for my neuro test today, I was reading about various case studies that have resulted from various lesions in different patients. Some of the stories were so sad about people becoming indifferent or depressed or having very bad language problems. I am so incredibly thankful that dad's problems are mainly math skills, minor word production issues and maybe not sleeping enough because he is just so excited :)
For those of you wondering, so far I am not planning to go home. I want to be there very badly but I'm not sure I could handle going there and then having to leave again. Things could always change and I could hop on a plane sometime in the next few months and travel back across the ocean, but for now I will rely on skype and email and Abby's camera to keep me up to date.
On an unrelated note, I want to quickly share some exciting news. I applied to many summer internships right before I came to Denmark. I hadn't planned on hearing from any of them until at least March. I was thrilled to see an email the other day from a researcher in Pheonix, Arizona telling me about her work and saying that she thinks I could be a good fit in her lab. It sounds really amazing. Obviously I won't make a decision for awhile and it might be that being far away from home the whole summer would not be the right choice for me...but, it's nice to know I have at least one option for research!
Well I think that's all for now. I will post a few pictures of my short study trip below just for fun. Maybe one of these days I will go back and write a little bit about it. Knus to all! (Hugs to all!)
-Rachel
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