Trip to Latvija :)

Last week I spent the week in Latvia with Liga, Ina, Remco, and Eva! Best vacation ever, for real!

The night before we left it was international night at the Studenterhus, and that was lots of fun. I got one of my Danish friends Jens to come as he lives very close!

On Wednesday at lunch time I headed down to the train station to begin my journey to Latvia. Liga was already in Latvia, and the others were going by bus, but since I had a train pass I went for free to Copenhagen. The train ride was fab, had a little nap and met up with them at the airport in Copenhagen! Had to run for the plane as we were busy looking in shops and didn't realise the time. The plane ride was the worst plane ride I have ever had!!! Not that I have had many, it was only my second flying experience ever! I had a sinus cold, and the pressure was soooo bad, I thought my head was just going to explode. Was the worst feeling ever, the flight attendants and the man next to me helped me lots though and I was VERY happy to finally make it to the ground, even though I had hardly any hearing in my ears for two days after that!

Once we landed in Riga, Liga greeted us and we drove back to her flat in the city! It was gorgeous and huge, 5 bedrooms as it used to be a home for the whole family before they built a new house! Now it is just Liga living there, and her roommate Didzis! He was very cool!

On Thursday we woke up and went to the Western part of Latvia. It took about 3 hours to drive there, but we made many stops- at waterfalls, castles, an Open air art-museum (slightly boring and odd.. was a museum with modern art in the middle of a field ), and we went on this cool toboggan/bobsled thing. It is normally a ski hill in the winter time, but in the summer months it is like a toboggan thing. Very fun! We also passed a city called Jurmala at the beginning, where Liga has a summer home, which is like 200 m from the most gorgeous beach ever! It is like 15-20km of straight soft, sandy, beautiful beach.

When we were in the city, Kuldiga, in the western part of Latvia, we got to walk around a little bit and see the "widest waterfall in europe", as well as a really pretty bridge and got to eat at the

FAB restaurant that probably only cost me about 10 dollars canadian for a full meal- including appetizers, drinks, meal, and dessert. so good! I love Latvia and its cheapness!

That night we hung out with Didzis and Liga's sister's boyfriend and relaxed. Very fun!

We all got Latvian names as well while we were there. I was "Kate", totally pronounced different than Kate in english, Ina was a Latvian name as well, Eva became Ieva, and Remco, well, there was no similarity in names, so he was called Raivo.

On Friday we walked around the capitol of Latvia, Riga. It was really fun, and we got to see looottss of stuff. Liga was a fabulous tour guide, she knew exactly where to go and what to show us, and cool Latvian traditions and stuff. We walked down to the 'Old town' and saw the very old part of Riga, as well as went to the market (HUUGGEE with so much fresh food), and up a church tower to see the whole city, as well as walked past many things like the Riga castle, the river, the canal, the Freedom monument statue, the Opera house with a pretty fountain, and this really cool display set up in one square downtown called "One day in Latvia".. it was like 50 huge blocks that had pictures on them, and half of the pictures were taken from around Latvia in the 1970's , showing all aspects of Latvia, and then they did the same thing again a few years ago, to show how the different aspects of life changes throughout the years. It was really cool!!

That night we met Liga's friends, and went over to one of their houses, his name was Janis, as is every other boy in Latvia. haha. It is the most common name EVER! We went out for a little bit to a couple of different places downtown and then headed home pretty late that night, it was fun!

On Saturday we went East of Riga to a place called Sigulda... and went FLYING! Yes, really flying. We went to a place called Aerodium where there was a huge fan/engine thing that shot air fast upwards, and you literally jumped onto the air and then FLEW! sooo much fun. We had to put on these hilarious costumes, complete with earplugs (which fell off during the flying), and hairnets. We were only "flying" for two minutes each, but it was totally enough. The first minute I actually got up, and it got a little scary when you could feel yourself keep going up. The second minute I sucked haha, and hardly got up at all, but hey, it was still fun! Liga and Remco were pro's!!

Right after flying, we decided to be even more adventurous and go to this thing called "Wildcat" also in the same city, which is a HUGE high ropes course. like obstacles very high up in trees, and the levels just kept getting harder and harder. I think theres something similar in NB, tree-go? Never been though. It was incredibleeeeeee.. and SOO high, i was scared for my life at several points. Although i was secured very well the whole time. It was so terrifying at the harder parts of the course, it was only me and Remco that did this, while the girls went into the city and explored and looked at some castle ruins and had tea and stuff. very happy I chose the adventurous route. Just knowing you were up soo high and it felt like you could fall any second was terrifying. I think remco even took a video of my legs just shaking at one point, out of pure terror. hahahaha. So good

That night was "night of museums" which I totally thought was going to be boring as I am the most non-museum person of life. But it actually wasn't that bad! All the museums in the city were free, and at every one you got a sticker saying that you were there and you put it on your jacket or something so everyone could see it. As you walked downtown though the streets (which were totally crowded with people for this night of museums), you could look at everyones jackets and see how many museums they'd visited. We visited 5 I think.. and only certain rooms are open, its not like you had to go through the whole thing. One of them was a theatre, which was fabulous, you got to go backstage and they had little skits going all the time with the actors. That one was my fav. I think we probably got home at like 2:30 or so.. rebels.

On Sunday we began by watching a little bit of the Riga marathon, followed by watching Ligas dance club's in a competition. It was amazing, for real. Its such a different style of dancing thatn I have ever seen before.. it was so traditional. Girls with the long dresses so that when they twirled it looked like it was an umbrella or something, and there were SO MANY BOYS. I think canadian boys should watch that many many times, and they may have a different opinion about dancing. There were even some dances that were purely boy dances. Like, several! With like 20 boys in each of them! It was really good.

In the afternoon went to Liga's parents house. It was FABULOUS. that is the only word to describe it. They lived right outside of Riga right on the river, with their own private beach and dock. gorgeous view. they had a huge lawn, with a garage, shed, SAUNA HOUSE (where we stayed.. complete with 3 bedrooms, 2 floors and a kitchen and of course a sauna), and then her absolutley stunning house. It was paradise. In the afternoon we played croquet like posh people, which was great, and then Ligas stepfather cooked us smoked fish, in his own little smoking house or whatever its called. It was intense. I hate fish and it wasnt even bad!! Very impressed.

That night we went in the main house's basement, complete with real zebra-skin rug that her stepfather hunted, and a real bear skin on the wall, and real leopard skin on the wall as well.. ahhh! ridiculous. absolutley ridiculous. We played "novuss" , similar to pool but on a square table, and Russian pool.. very small holes, and the balls on the pool table wern't striped and solids either. it was a weird game.. very weird. i sucked. After game night in the basement we went in the Sauna!! For like two hours. My first sauna experience. it was fabulous. and then jumped in the lake at the end. was great!!

The next day, Remco left in the morning, so it was girl-day. Starting with new haircuts for me and Ina (fabulous), we went on a .. 5? hour shopping trip to the biggest mall of life. It was great! Soo much fun, Liga was with us the whole time and had the best fashion advise ever, as she is the most stylish person ever. I got some new outfits! We left in a rush because Liga's cute roomie, Didzis, called her and wanted to hang out with us! So we rushed home and met didzis, had a fabulous photoshoot with our new clothing. I straightened Evas hair which looked gorgeous on her, and then we went go-karting! Well me and didzis did, the girls didnt want to. and i didnt have remco to go also, but it was really fun! and i kicked his butt at it, i was so much better :D hahah. It was fab! Then we went down to the river and had a little picnic, at like midnight. and eventually went home and went to bed. It was a good night... but not a good morning!

It was me and Liga going to take the plane in the morning, the other two girls were leaving the following day, and Didzis was going to drive us to the airport, and we were going to wake up at 4:30.. leave at 5:30.. get there at 6, for a flight leaving at 7. Guess what time we woke up at? 6! AH! apparently we ALL shut our alarms off. soo sketchy. i just randomly woke up when I had a dream thinking, i wonder what it would be like to miss the flight.. and then i opened my eyes and looked at the clock and like, almost screamed. i ran to liga's room, was like, ITS 6 AM GET UP!!! .. woke up didzis, and in 5 minutes we were down in the car.. got to the airport and through security and everything (keep in mind gates close at 6:45 am for a 7am flight), and we got there with like 5 minutes to spare! SWEET! we are pro's. it was soo stressful. but we did it! and flight home was much better than flight there!

That was my great trip to latvia. Best trip ever, with best tour guide ever and fashion adviser and GREAT people! Best trip ive had so far :D I love latvia!

The bobsled sliding things we got to go down! Lots of fun

The typical Riga pose.. in front of the fountain the the Opera house. Girls in pink!

Me FLYING! ahhh!!

Liga and her roomie Didzis!

Kapsejladsen, Legoland, and Skagen!

I haven't posted for two weeks, oops! I have been nice and busy around Denmark! I haven't been travelling, however, on Wednesday I will be heading to LATVIA! With four other exchange students, I am unbelievably excited for that!

SO! The last week of April was GORGOEUS weather, I wish it stayed, but the entire week was like, 25 degrees Celcius outside and sunny every day. Pretty much the hottest weather I have ever experienced, and it isn't even summer yet! I got to study outside a lot, that was fun ;)

On the Tuesday (Apr 28), I went to Student house, however, not very many people showed up! On Wednesday (Apr 29), I went to a nice little BBQ at a kollegium close to the campus called Dania kollegium, with my roommate Doni and some of her classmates. It was really fun! and So nice out! We had some delicious food!

On Thursday, it was the 30th of April, and apparently in the Netherlands this is a Dutch Queensday... so if there is a 'reason' for a party, the exchange students will have one! So at Skejbyparken there was a Dutch Queensday party, where the theme was ORANGE! Especially the dutch people were very nicely dressed for the occasion!

On Friday, I went to the Economics Friday bar, that was fun :) That night me and Liga decided to go check out a Danish party on campus- it was held by the Economics department as well, so we pretended to be economics students for the night.. we just wanted to meet Danish people, is that so bad?? It was really fun, we met some of Ligas friends from her classes (shes in Law, but other people were pretending to be economics students as well apparently), and met some Danish people! Some actually talked to us for a long time! Very exciting!! Didn't stay out too late, however, because on Saturday... I went to LEGOLAND!!!!! Which was fabulous!! I loved every minute of it, it was so cute!! Absolutley everything was Lego themed, including like, garbage cans. They had different sections of Legoland- they had one section that was mini-villages of real life villages and cities. For example there was a mini Copenhagen, which totally looked like the real Copenhagen!! Things moved too, like boats in the little canals and trucks on the street! There were little towns of places in Germany, all over Denmark, Sweden, norway perhaps, Netherlands, Japan, Beverly hills/LA, and other things! After looking at a lot of Lego, we walked through a food section that was like, cowboy themed, and then made "Snobrød", a Danish type of bread, and roasted it over a fire in an Indian themed section!

There was a HUGE pirate section, I think that was my favourite in the whole park! There was this big 'lake' of water, where there was a ride on it that you were in a boat in the water and had to shoot targets and the people in the other boats too. You got absolutley SOAKED on this ride! Unfortunately the people I was with did not want to go on it! I went with Doni my roommate, her friend from school Tina, and Tina's Danish boyfriend named Thomas. Thomas has a car so that is how we got there, it was fabulous!!

We went on some rides after that- one that went up really high in the Pirate section where you could see a lot of the park, that was pretty petrifying, as well as one on a canoe where we got a little wet! Another one went through a castle, and we almost got kicked off the ride because we had our camera out. Woops! We got yelled at. Bad. oopsies. :)

There was this one ride/roller coaster that was SO GOOD! It was sooo scary, you were in a little car with 4 people in it, and there was such a huge drop at one point, I totally couldnt feel my stomach anymore and I was screaming sooo loud. Throughout the whole ride, actually. And were told by a girl on the bottom (Tinas friend) that she could definately hear us the whole time screaming. Slightly embarassing. In the end, Legoland was totally worth it. It was really expensive to get in, but I loved it!

The following week was busy with school for the first half, I had a presentation in my Microbiology class about microbial symbiosis between invertebrates and sulfur oxidizing chemoautotrophs...... interesting, right? haha, I hate presentations, but it's all over now!

on THURSDAY was a huge school event called Kapsejladsen. pronounced like, 'cap-se-lays' (seriously, Danish pronounciation is weird), and this was the thing we had been hearing about since we arrived in Aarhus. It is a huge boat race that takes place on the lake on the campus between departments, hosted by Medicine, and Biology was competing this year in it! One guy from my fish biology class last quarter, Jonas, he was participating in it! It was very exciting, they said there was about 15,000 people there (oh yes, so many), it was unbelievable! The departments competing put on big introductions before they actually went out to race- one was Pirates of the Carribean themed, that was really cool, they had canons and everything. Another one was a mix of Wheres waldo (in Danish: Hvor er Holger/Find Holger.. they changed his name!) themed and a Danish television show called Bubber, who looks like waldo sort of, and he sits in a bathtub and has a camel in the show. And they totally had a real camel there. Very shocking!!!! One of the other departments introduction had someone being set on fire and then jumping into the lake, and another totally had strippers. That would totally not be allowed in Canada! Nor would the excessive amount of drinking in public areas. Its totally normal in Denmark! Like, legal! crazy...

The actual races were good, the announcers were all speaking in Danish, and since we were sitting with a huuuge group of exchange students in a place that you couldn't see a thing of, I decided to go find some Danish people from my classes so I could actually see / get it translated. Made it much better! Biology came second in their heat, which is apparently amazing! They thought they were going to come in last. However, not enough to make it to the final round! Since it was medicine that was the host, it was Biology's first time competing in the competition in like, six years or something, because like six or seven years ago, Medicine was hosting an afterparty to the event, but Biology decided to also host an afterparty, so they hated biology after that.

After the races, I was talking to one of my Danish classmates Steffen, and he said that a bunch of Biologists were going over to the biology house for a bit, so I went there for a bit and was lots of fun! I stayed for about two hours, and talked to the two girls, Mette and Sanne from my class a lot of the time (the two girls in the pic under this one). And Tommy and Lene (on the left right there!), and Steffen! Im pretty sure I love Danish people.

After that, at around 8:30 I went back home for some supper, and then Jonas (the guy from the boat race) had got me a ticket for a big afterparty downtown, so I went to his house before so we could all go down together. He had a bunch of people over at his house too- let me see how many names I can remember.. Paul, Peter?, Casper, .. yep, thats it. There might have been 10 people there though, I just extremely suck at Danish names. When I was at the Biohus after the races, I was talking to this girl from my class named Janne and she was trying to get me to pronounce extremely Danish names and I totally butchered them- like Lene, Janne, Mads, Morten, and many more. It was bad on my part. haha

We eventually went down to Train, where the party was. It was a club, which totally aren't my thing because I cannot dance, but it was fun anyway. There were some exchange students there as well as the Danish group of people. It was sooooo crowded, it was unbelievable. Like, impossible to move for about an hour! I ended up staying out pretty late, but it was an alright night in the end.

On Friday it was a national holiday, something like a National Prayer day, where at one point there were a bunch of little holidays throughout the whole year, and one year the king or someone decided to put all of the little holidays together and make one big holiday, so nobody really knows what they are celebrating on that day. That night I went to a dinner at my mentor Mads' house, with the other exchange students he was helping out, Miriam from Germany and Laila from Latvia. It was a nice quiet night, I enjoyed it a lot :) He made really good food!

And finally, yesterday, Saturday, I went to SKAGEN! Pronounced 'Skain'. the G is totally silent, odd. It was a trip organized by the student house, and it was fabulous. I knew probably about 75% of the bus, which was great, it made it so much more fun! First we went to this church that only the top of it was visible- the majority of it was underground and had been covered many years ago by sand dunes. How cool is that!

After that we went to the actual city of Skagen, where all of the buildings were YELLOW (weird, huh) and it was suuuch a cute little town/village/city). We went to the museum, and I walked around looking at stuff for about 5 minutes, and then found a childrens section of the museum, and I think I was there for an hour and a half. Good times. Highlight of the museum by far. We made these cool little crafts (the picture underneath this one). Unfortunately, mine died on the transportation home, and one of our tour guides Thomas made one also, but he left his at the restaurant. So, so sad.

For lunch we went to this Taco place, I went with Jun-Rong, Fabian, and the two "tour guides"- Thomas and I have no idea what the other guys name was- where there was a delicious buffet for only 60 kr! It was soo good! American/mexican/italian/something else food. Sooo yummy!

After exploring the city a little bit, we went to the famous part of the city- to the "tip" of Jutland!Called 'Grenen'. It is really famous because it is where two seas meet! Ive been saying that it is the Baltic sea coming from the right and the North sea coming from the left- but I think it is actually Kattegak on the right, which separates Denmark from Sweden, and on the right the waters of Skaggerak, the straight that seperates Denmark from Norway! Very cool! It was soo neat when we got there- because the waves were coming from two different directions, and they were crashing into each other in the middle! We took lots of pictures, it was so pretty, and the beach was gorgeous!!

On the way back (it took like 3 hours to drive up to the top of Denmark.. this is a very very long drive for Danes), we stopped at the "Highest live sand dune in northern Europe"..... woooooooo. I didnt know titles like this existed. But it was actually really cool. It felt like you were in the middle of a desert, and the white sand was blowing like crazy, and it was the finest sand ever. Soo pretty!

So that is pretty much it, now must just upload lots of pictures! Enjoy!!

This is from the forest down by my house. Too cute! It is a really nice spot to go for walks, and I just discovered it like, two weeks ago!

The beach ~ 10 minute walk away from my

house!

Im not really sure who is on the left, but on the right was one of the nice Danish boys we met at the Ecomonics party! His name was Nils

Me and Liga at the ecomonics party :)

Looking at the tip of Denmark!

Me and Matteo at the tip of Jutland- we are in two seas at once! Ahh!

Springtime in Aarhus!

Now that I am not posting about any kind of trip, this post will be nice and short!

After I got back from Marseille I was absolutley exhausted, so took a couple of lazy days! Easter was very uneventful, but I got an easter package from Margaret containing some excellent Mini eggs and Cadbury cream eggs and another little package from my Mommy containing some other excellent chocolates. So Easter was still delish! I also went to church! Totally in Danish of course. hah

I went to International night that week, though I got there at like 10, not even early, and there was like 5 people there. They come later and later every week!! But it was fun to see everyone, although there were still a bunch of people travelling!!

On Thursday I went shopping with Doni my roommate for Danish outfits hahah, I decided I was looking far too North american every day with my jeans and t-shirt, so we bought some Danish clothing!! We went to a Thursday bar that night on campus, it was really fun, a bunch of the exchange students were there too! So I hung out with Doni and her friends at the beginning and then the exchange students for the rest!

Pretty quiet weekend for me too! I had a lot of work to catch up on, and I went for a gorgeous walk down to the Risskov beach which is only like 10 minutes from my house- totally surprised Id never gone there before, because it was so nice! Next time I will be bringing my camera for sure!

Springtime is definately here in Denmark! It is getting absolutley GORGEOUS outside! If the sun is out, Im pretty sure you have no excuse for not wearing shorts and t-shirts and sandals. My backyard here is totally enclosed by like sheds and trees, so it is so nice to go out there and tan! I love walking through the uni campus, because it is soo pretty. Everytime I walk by the lake you can always see people practicing for the big boat race here on May 7th!

This week I was sooooooo busy!!! On Tuesday it was International night at Studenterhus, but some of the exchange students put together a BAND! It was Matteo from Italy, Jose from Italy/Venezuela, Benoit from Quebec and Mattieu from MONCTON!! seriously, moncton. I could not believe i had not met this guy before. So close! Their band was soo good! They played a lot of songs we knew, which was lots of fun, and Im pretty sure every single person I know here in Denmark was there that night.. soo fun! Although had to walk home, but that's alright!

During the day on Wednesday I was at this grocery store downtown that my roommate told me about- and it had a BRITISH/AMERICAN isle!! I was so happy!!!! They had like the british version of KD ("Cheese Pasta") hahaha, and also things I didn't realise we didnt have here- like Jello, Aunt Jemima Syrup, Pop-tarts, Chocolate chips, Jiff peanut butter, Fluff, Real yellow mustard, fruit roll-ups, fruit loops and shreddies, betty crocker cake mix, old el paso tacos and so much more! I was so happy, though the prices were unreal!!!! As in, aunt jemima syrup was 85 KR, AKA, like, OVER 20 DOLLARS!!!!

On Wednesday night me and Fabian and Jun-Rong went to Waxies, a random pub downtown I'd never been to for a Pub Quiz. Ive never been to one of those before.. but seriously it was so fun! They ask you ridiculous questions, some of them you know, but others you totally guess, and the winners get prizes, but unfortunately we were not among the winners haha. One of the questions was , which country is Bryan Adams from, and so i wrote CANADA in huge bold letters with some hearts and stuff around them, and you have to pass your sheet to the table beside yours for them to correct it, and they just looked at me and were like, I bet i can guess what country you're from.......... haha and then kept making like Canada jokes at me all night haha. it was funny.

Thursday night Me, Fabian, Jun Rong, Eva and Johanna went to Karaoke night at a different pub downtown, it was really funny. Im pretty sure I got sucked into singing Barbie girl.. oh yeah. slightly embarassing, but was with 3 others so was not that bad! But it was fullllllll of old people there, it was hilarious. The same lady sung like 10 times, by herself, but was.. not very good at all. She must have had a lot of self confidence to keep doing it over and over haha. Will probably not be attending that Karaoke night again! There was a "jam session" going on in the room beside the karaoke room, and we were talking to the singer guy before karaoke started, and he was from USA! I love meeting people from North America, Im not really sure why, they are never any different from anyone else, but I guess it is just a conversation starter because we have something in commmon! haha. Anyway some guy playing in his little band was hilarious, he was playing that mandolin instrument or whatever it was called, and his facial expressions were absolutley hilarious. I think I have to include a picture of that, because seriously, TOO funny. I could not stop laughing! We were waiting at the bus stop ready to leave later, me and Fabian. and the bus just DIDNT COME! I was so mad hah , and Im sure Taxis would be crazy expensive here, so we walked. Not cool when I had 9AM class! Since walking from downtown always takes about 40 minutes.. but, it could be worse!

Im pretty sure Friday was like, the funnest day in soo long. Not even joking haha. After class there was the Friday bars of course, and all of the exchange students go to the economics one, and it was just sooo sunny and gorgeous out, we were all outside on the grass. Nice to see everyone in summer clothes!! So fun.

After Friday bar I went home, got something to eat and went to a BIOLOGY PARTY! hahah, okay, I thought it was going to be toooooootally lame, but I had bought a ticket anyway to go. It was like the Biology committee's (Biogas?) 30th anniversary, so it was a birthday party! I knew the guy who was like, organizing it, and he's the one that convinced me to go, and I was like, alright.. I guess I can, even though he was the only one I knew before going, and knew he would be busy the whole time. Anyway it turned out to be not lame at ALL haha, but so much fun! They had like a DJ, a band, and a dance floor, and I ended up seeing people from my classes there! I was seriously the only English speaking person there, or like, non-danish person there for that matter haha, but it was lots of fun! I guess I have never really experienced Danish people when they are drinking at all, but they are talkative!! Normally like they hardly talk at all I guess until they know you, but I had like hardly ever spoken to these people in my classes before and as soon as I saw them here they were like, KAATTIIEE!, and I was just thinking like, I didnt even think you knew my name. hahah. But it was really fun!! I ended up talking to these two Danish girls from my class a lot- Mette and Sanne (the two girls at the bottom), and then the guy who was organizing it Jonas (in the blue shirt and vest), and Jens from my old fish biology class, and Martin from my old classes and Mads and Steffen (above the photo of Jonas) from the two classes I am in now! They all have ridiculous Danish names, most of them that have crazy pronounciations, and Im sure all of their last names have those crazy danish letters in them too. They even got me to dance.. I never dance. ever. hahaha. mostly because I cant! which was reconfirmed that night haha.

The party ended at 3, but I had told Jonas that I would help him and his little committee of people clean up.. and then I stayed for some food afterwards. soo.. I think in the end I got home at like .. 6.. haha, I can't say i have EVER done that before!!! But it was totally worth it, I got to meet some Danish people and have fun!

Yesterday I was really tired from staying up so late, and as it was already bright out by the time I got home on Friday night (or saturday monring? haha), it was hard to sleep. I went to Alberto's birthday party last night which was fun, although since I was so tired I only stayed for about two hours and then went to BED!!

Anyway I think that is all for now, I have procrastinated enough for today and need to be productive! Enjoy the pictures!!

Matteo playing at Student house!!

Me, Jose, Liga and Matteo! Wearing the rockers hats, and take note of Matteo's pit stains!!

Me and Liga at the concert!

Ina, Liga Me and Michelle at the lovely Friday Bar! In our summer colours!

Jens on the right and his friend at the Biology party!

Steffen and me at the biology party! I have a nice danish flag in my hair!! Im pretty much Danish!