3 Fun Facts About Denmark

1. The Metro trains all run by themselves. They are machines-- no train driver/conductor- nothing!

2. The toilets are specific. The button with the half circle is a quick flush, the button with the full circle is a long flush...you get the point. I guess it's a European thing, because I saw it in London too. It's kind of like Japan, but not as complicated! (What are all those buttons for exactly?)

3. There are 7-11's everywhere! They are really nice too-stocked with croissants, fancy coffee machines, and wine.

The U.S, America, or the States?

Whenever people ask me here where I'm from, I stutter.

"the U.S." I say. "USA. America." I continue, "the states."

I have a problem saying the U.S. because I think it sounds weird. So does USA. And saying America sounds equally strange. But 'the states' doesn't cut it either--only when I've said the other two does it sound right.

I just can't figure out which one to pick. Am I extremely alone on this one?

p.s. Stay tuned for a post on how to cross the street in Denmark..

Hello, My Deer

There is a family of deer about a seven minute bike ride away from my house. They live in a big fenced off field and are fed by the neighborhood, so they act kind of like dogs. I've never been so up-close to deer in my life (the closest I've come is spotting them along the highway driving out of NYC, and it's always super exciting). They really do have spots like Bambi, and the way they prance around-- it never gets old.

The Pappa buck is clearly in charge. He always approaches me first, and once he gives the O.K to his family, the mama comes next, and she lets me pet her. I feed them grass until they realize that it's the same stuff they've been eating, and then they start to give me skeptical looks. I haven't been able to convince the little ones to approach me yet--they prefer to stand back a little and watch me with their fuzzy heads and long necks. They always looks like teenage boys that just got out of bed-- so cute! When it's time to go I know--Papa Deer gives me a very clear look that means "OK KID. BEAT IT." And I definitely don't want to mess with him. Do you see those antlers?!

Hope everyone's having a good weekend!

Photos (of two things I love)

The two things I probably photograph the most are blue skies.....

....and my dog Flo. On days like today, when both are far far away, I love looking through my photos. Cute fact? Flo knows that it's model time when I take out my camera. She will come up to me and sit down and tilt her head (she knows her flattering angles very well).

Hope that makes you smile too :)

Happy Friday, y'all!

Signs of Spring (And some Unusual Road Kill)

The trees might still be bare, but the ground is trying hard to welcome some tiny little spring flowers...

And on a slightly different note, I've been passing this unfortunate sight every day on the way to the train station...

it's oddly unsettling and tragic, don't you think?

Enjoy your weekends, everyone! Hopefully it's a little warm where you are...

:)

8 Things I Love About Rain

Now that spring is finally approaching, it's been raining a lot here in Denmark. And since rain gets a bad rep (frizzy hair, wet socks, smelly dogs...), I thought I'd give it a little credit, by listing the 8 things I love about it:

1. Puddles. Nothing is more satisfying than walking through a puddle in your rain boots. When I was little, I was always extremely hopeful that I'd find a frog family in the biggest puddles, so I always checked before splashing through them.

2. The way rain sounds on anything. Your roof. Your windshield. Your umbrella.

3. The second of silence as you drive under an overpass.

4. The smell.

5. Kid. Rain. Gear.

6. The strength of one rain drop. Have you ever noticed how they cling onto things for dear life?

7. How rainy days force you to finish that book you've been reading for three years.

8. Sharing an umbrella. With your best friend, or your boyfriend, or your little sister. I love it.

Does anyone else love rain?

p.s. That adorable illustration is by my Mother :)

London!

Hi Guys! Sorry I've been MIA recently...I've been in London for week!

I went with my child development program--26 girls and 1 boy. It was extremely fun, and utterly exhausting.

One of the first things we did when we got there was hop on the cute little London Eye-- a short, sweet, low to the ground ferris wheel. JUST KIDDING. Airplanes could skim the top of it, it was so damn high. And slow. And excruciating. I told myself I had to do it to make Holly happy, but on the first day? After a plane ride? After a huge dinner involving lots of curry and not enough wine? My heart was racing when I snapped this picture:

And my fingers were jello when I took this one:

Once I was in one of the glass bubbles, I sat on the bench in the middle, with my hands up around my face like horse blinders. I focused on the horizon and the breath taking view of London. And then my classmates decided to take a group picture at one end of it, and the entire thing rocked to one side. I gripped the bench and imagined us all plummeting to our deaths, the glass shattering into a million pieces and slicing all our faces off as it crashed into the freezing water below us. All of a sudden it became too much. I yelled "HURRY UP!" to my classmates who were clearly oblivious to our closely approaching deaths. I was convinced there was a mechanical problem with our bubble. One of the screws was unscrewing itself. This thought caused me to burst into pitiful snot-inducing tears. My teacher planted her iphone in my hand and demanded I distract myself. I sniffled and then became completely engrossed in a game where I had to drop food into a frog's mouth. Fifteen minutes went by and when I looked out the window next, we were on the other side, almost to the ground. I was able to stand up and pose for this picture:

When my feet hit the ground again, I felt like I could go sky diving. Got to give Holly credit for that feeling!

In the 6 days that I spent in London, I visited Charles Dicken's living room:

I stopped by platform 9 3/4...

I took off my winter coat and spent an hour in wonderful sunlight watching my friends do cartwheels...

Went to a best.musical.ever about drag queens...

Stopped by Hyde Park and watched the ducks for awhile...

Drooled for a full thirty minutes as I walked through this food market...

Stopped by Westminster where Charles Darwin, Jane Austen, William Blake, Winston Churchill, John Keats (to name a few) lay buried...

And on the last night, drank wine, celebrated a birthday, and went out dancing.

Now time to go back to bed...more photos on Facebook soon. Hope everyone had a good week! xox