Sunday, March 30, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Food
I've had several conversations recently with Danish people on my floor concerning food. Of the 14 people on my floor, I am probably the only one that doesn't eat 3 meals. Breakfast has really never been my thing. Usually my breakfast is either a cup of coffee or tea. I've never really understood the old adage that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I'd rather get more sleep then get up 30 min earlier to make something. I still have plenty of energy even when I don't eat breakfast.
Anywho, the conversations with my floormates have basically centered around the fact that I don't eat typical meals and my food selections aren't gourmet. Here in Denmark (and from what I've seen a lot of other places in Europe too) it's the norm for someone my age to make a very respectable breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hearty, good food is almost a necessity for dinner. That being said, none of what I've just described is who I am. One of the conversations started as I was boiling my ramen noodles for dinner. Could ramen fill me up? How do I have enough energy in the day with smaller meals and no breakfast? What are the reasons behind your food choices? Basically all these questions boil down to the fact that good food is important to many Danes, and it isn't to me. I love eating my mom's great cooking, but when I'm on my own I'd rather just eat something cheap and remotely good, something that satisfies my appetite. I'm not very hard to please and so ramen or a frozen pizza does the trick for me. These things, plus mac and cheese and TV dinners are cheap meals that I'm content with. I just don't like spending my money on food: something that seems very foreign to people on my floor (hell, I am foreign). In the future, I will most likely change my cooking habits, but I'm content for now.
Of all the things I've encountered so far in Denmark, food might just be the biggest cultural difference. Excuse me while I go take my Tony's pizza out of the oven (I could only hope for Tony's in Denmark!).
Anywho, the conversations with my floormates have basically centered around the fact that I don't eat typical meals and my food selections aren't gourmet. Here in Denmark (and from what I've seen a lot of other places in Europe too) it's the norm for someone my age to make a very respectable breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hearty, good food is almost a necessity for dinner. That being said, none of what I've just described is who I am. One of the conversations started as I was boiling my ramen noodles for dinner. Could ramen fill me up? How do I have enough energy in the day with smaller meals and no breakfast? What are the reasons behind your food choices? Basically all these questions boil down to the fact that good food is important to many Danes, and it isn't to me. I love eating my mom's great cooking, but when I'm on my own I'd rather just eat something cheap and remotely good, something that satisfies my appetite. I'm not very hard to please and so ramen or a frozen pizza does the trick for me. These things, plus mac and cheese and TV dinners are cheap meals that I'm content with. I just don't like spending my money on food: something that seems very foreign to people on my floor (hell, I am foreign). In the future, I will most likely change my cooking habits, but I'm content for now.
Of all the things I've encountered so far in Denmark, food might just be the biggest cultural difference. Excuse me while I go take my Tony's pizza out of the oven (I could only hope for Tony's in Denmark!).
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
A Beautiful Day in Denmark
It's amazing the perspective you can get on things when you know the time when they will end. Today was an absolutely beautiful day in Arhus: clear sky's, no wind and a slight chill in the air. I had to do some laundry and inside things today after school, but before I did that I decided to take a short walk up to one of the local grocery stores. Basically I just wanted to get outside. This may sound really lame, but I had a great time in that short walk because I was appreciating the crisp air, clear sky's and distant view of the water in a city thousands of miles away from home. Some Counting Crows on my iPod and it was an incredibly enjoyable walk.
One of the things that enables me to enjoy such little things like that is because I know in June I'll be gone from here. It's a definitive date. Knowing that, I seem to take a different perspective on everyday things, and although it doesn't always happen I want to make the best out of everyday.
When I started college almost 3 years ago, my graduation was not something that I could imagine. It simply was too far away. In the fall, however, I'll be entering my senior year and that automatically flicks a switch on. I had an amazing past 3 years in school, but I'm not sure that I took every beautiful day or baseball game on the couch with the same perspective as I have now in Arhus. Check that, I'm sure I didn't. It's one of those things that's almost impossible to do because we just can't wrap our minds around 4 years down the road when things will be different.
Although it certainly is hard, hopefully I can continue to carry my current perspective throughout the end of my college career and beyond. It's definitely the better way to live. I guess it also helps that I'm an eternal optimist.
Which brings up another point: DON'T BE A PESSIMIST! it just brings everyone else down around you
One of the things that enables me to enjoy such little things like that is because I know in June I'll be gone from here. It's a definitive date. Knowing that, I seem to take a different perspective on everyday things, and although it doesn't always happen I want to make the best out of everyday.
When I started college almost 3 years ago, my graduation was not something that I could imagine. It simply was too far away. In the fall, however, I'll be entering my senior year and that automatically flicks a switch on. I had an amazing past 3 years in school, but I'm not sure that I took every beautiful day or baseball game on the couch with the same perspective as I have now in Arhus. Check that, I'm sure I didn't. It's one of those things that's almost impossible to do because we just can't wrap our minds around 4 years down the road when things will be different.
Although it certainly is hard, hopefully I can continue to carry my current perspective throughout the end of my college career and beyond. It's definitely the better way to live. I guess it also helps that I'm an eternal optimist.
Which brings up another point: DON'T BE A PESSIMIST! it just brings everyone else down around you
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
International Dinner
Last night I hosted a class dinner at my place and we had about 15 people there. Each represented country was supposed to prepare a typical dish from their country or something they eat a lot at home. This may be news to many of you, but I'm not a master chef. I thought about making pigs-in-a-blanket, but since the grocery stores here have been closed 4 of the past 5 days for Easter I wasn't able to find the ingredients for that. So yesterday afternoon I went to the only open grocery store within walking distance to find something else. By the time I got there they had been wiped out of many things, which left me in a quandary. I persevered and decided to make Mac and Cheese, which I must say turned out pretty good. A mix of white and yellow cheddar gave it nice taste, and I shredded that cheese myself thank you very much. Mac and Cheese is incredibly American and I was surprised to hear that several people in my class had never actually had it, which made my choice even better. Everybody prepared tasty stuff and we all had a good time. The Mac and Cheese was completely wiped out so I was happy. I think we plan to do something like this again soon, so I'll be able to exercise my improving cooking skills. Vi ses!
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Luck of the Irish: My Computer Works and You Get a Post
MY COMPUTER IS RUNNING AGAIN! (now back to your regularly scheduled programming)
My trip to Ireland has come and gone and it was a great time. I was in Dublin March 12-17 and enjoyed pretty much every minute of it. When I stepped out of the airport there was a steady rain, but after riding on the bus for about 10 minutes it stopped raining and the sun came out. To my surprise I was greeted in Dublin with a big rainbow in the afternoon sky. How about a welcome to the land of the Irish?
My first night was really interesting. I spent the night at All Hallows College in the northern part of Dublin. My mom and dad slept there when they were in Ireland a few years ago. On my walk there I was completely taken back when I was walking on the left sidewalk and cars were passing me from behind. I walked 3 blocks before I noticed everyone driving on the other side of the road, crazy stuff. I went with Fr. Bob, an extremely nice person, to a small St. Pat's party they had at the school. There are several international classes of adults studying there and so I was treated to entertainment from Africa, China, India and several other countries. I even contributed, singing the Mizzou alma mater, which everyone enjoyed.
Thursday was an early morning. I had breakfast with Fr. Bob and then caught a bus to City Centre. The thing that caught my eye after getting off the bus in the middle of downtown was the fact that everything had a older feel to it. If you discount the Millienium spire, which kind of comes out of nowhere, everything else had a cool old feel to it. Like the other European cities I've been too the architecture was very cool. I especially loved the old time clocks that were on a ton of buildings downtown.
After I met and walked around with a couple girls from Canada for a while, I went to the train station, bought my one-day DART train pass and hopped on board for the approx. 45 min trip to Greystones, 25 km south of Dublin.
Greystones was just an absolutely cool little town with beautiful scenery. I walked up and down the beach as well as the main drag in town. It was a nice change from the big city feel of Dublin, like two different worlds. A very delicious lunch of lentil and ginger soup and soda bread capped off the nice time in Greystones. Since I was at the end of train line, I went back towards Dublin and stopped off in Bray, the next stop. There is an awesome point on the train where you come out from behind a line of rocks and all of the sudden a beautiful sight of beach, rocks and the vast Irish Sea opens up in front of you. I spent the entire train ride both ways glued to the window. I enjoyed the town feel of Greystones more, but Bray's scenery was unbeatable. After chilling on the beach of rocks for a while watching the waves crash, I climbed the mountain (big hill, whichever you prefer...a long hike non-the-less). I was extremely hot upon reaching the top and lucky for me the rain started to come down. Typically I'm not a big fan of rain, but it was so cool so just stand at the top of the mountain, with the rain and wind in my face, and take in the scenery. Just a cool experience overall!
I spent a while on the mountain soaking everything up, then decided it was about time to head down and make my way to Howth, the complete opposite end of the rail line. From what I've heard Howth is just as beautiful, but I got there as the sun was going down and so I didn't have much light to explore. Howth is a big fishing port and I had an excellent dinner of Smoked Wild Irish Salmon. I walked around a bit before my dinner reservation and it seemed like a really cool town like Greystones, only a little bigger because of the fishing industry. For my one-day DART train pass I got one hell of a day, riding the complete line. This was without a doubt the best day of the trip.
I met up with my high school friend Greg late that night and spent the next 3 days staying at his place in Dublin. Friday afternoon I had my first pint of Guinness in Dublin and an absolutely delicious lunch of Beef and Guinness Pie.
Think of shepherds pie, but with the beef cooked in Guinness and instead of mash potatoes it was a flaky pastry top. One of the better things I've ever had. After lunch, Greg went grocery shopping and I headed off to the Guinness Storehouse Brewery to see how it compared to A-B. It was a cool self-guided tour in the storehouse which has only been open since 2000. I especially liked the section devoted to Guinness advertising, which ranks right up there with A-B. At the end of the tour they give you a pint of Guinness up in their 360* glass bar. So I enjoyed my pint while catching a great view of the city and surrounding hills and things. That night we went to a cool bar called Messrs and had a really good time.
Saturday's weather didn't fare so good as it literally rained the entire day. I know we throw that phrase around often and it actually isn't true most of the time, but this time is actually is true: rain the entire day. So we chilled at Greg's place for a while and then went out to another bar, the Woolshed, to watch the Ireland-England rugby match for the Six Nations Cup. The place was packed with fans and although I had no idea about the majority of rugby rules it was a great time. Futbol and rugby are the things in Ireland and they are pretty passionate about both. Ireland ended up getting killed, but the next game up was show. France - Wales were playing to decide the winner of the tournament and there were plenty of French fans on hand. In one of the cooler things I've ever seen, the entire portion of the bar we were sitting in broke out into thunderous (it was very loud) song for the French national anthem. It was one of those things that you get chills at. The night ended at The Bleeding Horse, my favorite bar of the weekend. It had a really ornate front bar and a nice local feel to it even though there were a lot of young people.
Sunday's weather could not have been any better: clear skys and not really cold. I decided to go down to Marion Square for some of the St. Patrick's Day festivities. Half of it was a St. Gabriel's school picnic and the other half was a cultural performances and kids activities. I watched about six different shows, walked around for while, grabbed all the free food I could and then went home. One of the more interesting shows was what looked like an Islamic religious dance. The main dancer in the middle spun around in circles for what had to be at least 10 minutes. You've got to be good to do that and not get sick, it was impressive. They had these two crazy mascots for the festival and as you can see I had to get my picture with them.
That night we went back to Messrs and enjoyed a few more pints of Guinness. Man, is that stuff good! I can't drink a lot of it because it's so heavy, but just watching the beer mix after it's been poured is worth the money. Since I woke up early Monday morning and headed to the airport there isn't much to report there so in the spirit of Guinness then I'll leave you with a nice final picture. I never knew that the correct way to pour it is to go 3/4's, let it settle then pour the rest.
As I wrote this blog I listened to "Galway Girl" by Mundy on repeat. It's my new favorite Irish song that I picked up while I was there. Check it out yourself!
My trip to Ireland has come and gone and it was a great time. I was in Dublin March 12-17 and enjoyed pretty much every minute of it. When I stepped out of the airport there was a steady rain, but after riding on the bus for about 10 minutes it stopped raining and the sun came out. To my surprise I was greeted in Dublin with a big rainbow in the afternoon sky. How about a welcome to the land of the Irish?
My first night was really interesting. I spent the night at All Hallows College in the northern part of Dublin. My mom and dad slept there when they were in Ireland a few years ago. On my walk there I was completely taken back when I was walking on the left sidewalk and cars were passing me from behind. I walked 3 blocks before I noticed everyone driving on the other side of the road, crazy stuff. I went with Fr. Bob, an extremely nice person, to a small St. Pat's party they had at the school. There are several international classes of adults studying there and so I was treated to entertainment from Africa, China, India and several other countries. I even contributed, singing the Mizzou alma mater, which everyone enjoyed.
Thursday was an early morning. I had breakfast with Fr. Bob and then caught a bus to City Centre. The thing that caught my eye after getting off the bus in the middle of downtown was the fact that everything had a older feel to it. If you discount the Millienium spire, which kind of comes out of nowhere, everything else had a cool old feel to it. Like the other European cities I've been too the architecture was very cool. I especially loved the old time clocks that were on a ton of buildings downtown.
After I met and walked around with a couple girls from Canada for a while, I went to the train station, bought my one-day DART train pass and hopped on board for the approx. 45 min trip to Greystones, 25 km south of Dublin. Greystones was just an absolutely cool little town with beautiful scenery. I walked up and down the beach as well as the main drag in town. It was a nice change from the big city feel of Dublin, like two different worlds. A very delicious lunch of lentil and ginger soup and soda bread capped off the nice time in Greystones. Since I was at the end of train line, I went back towards Dublin and stopped off in Bray, the next stop. There is an awesome point on the train where you come out from behind a line of rocks and all of the sudden a beautiful sight of beach, rocks and the vast Irish Sea opens up in front of you. I spent the entire train ride both ways glued to the window. I enjoyed the town feel of Greystones more, but Bray's scenery was unbeatable. After chilling on the beach of rocks for a while watching the waves crash, I climbed the mountain (big hill, whichever you prefer...a long hike non-the-less). I was extremely hot upon reaching the top and lucky for me the rain started to come down. Typically I'm not a big fan of rain, but it was so cool so just stand at the top of the mountain, with the rain and wind in my face, and take in the scenery. Just a cool experience overall!
I spent a while on the mountain soaking everything up, then decided it was about time to head down and make my way to Howth, the complete opposite end of the rail line. From what I've heard Howth is just as beautiful, but I got there as the sun was going down and so I didn't have much light to explore. Howth is a big fishing port and I had an excellent dinner of Smoked Wild Irish Salmon. I walked around a bit before my dinner reservation and it seemed like a really cool town like Greystones, only a little bigger because of the fishing industry. For my one-day DART train pass I got one hell of a day, riding the complete line. This was without a doubt the best day of the trip.I met up with my high school friend Greg late that night and spent the next 3 days staying at his place in Dublin. Friday afternoon I had my first pint of Guinness in Dublin and an absolutely delicious lunch of Beef and Guinness Pie.
Think of shepherds pie, but with the beef cooked in Guinness and instead of mash potatoes it was a flaky pastry top. One of the better things I've ever had. After lunch, Greg went grocery shopping and I headed off to the Guinness Storehouse Brewery to see how it compared to A-B. It was a cool self-guided tour in the storehouse which has only been open since 2000. I especially liked the section devoted to Guinness advertising, which ranks right up there with A-B. At the end of the tour they give you a pint of Guinness up in their 360* glass bar. So I enjoyed my pint while catching a great view of the city and surrounding hills and things. That night we went to a cool bar called Messrs and had a really good time.Saturday's weather didn't fare so good as it literally rained the entire day. I know we throw that phrase around often and it actually isn't true most of the time, but this time is actually is true: rain the entire day. So we chilled at Greg's place for a while and then went out to another bar, the Woolshed, to watch the Ireland-England rugby match for the Six Nations Cup. The place was packed with fans and although I had no idea about the majority of rugby rules it was a great time. Futbol and rugby are the things in Ireland and they are pretty passionate about both. Ireland ended up getting killed, but the next game up was show. France - Wales were playing to decide the winner of the tournament and there were plenty of French fans on hand. In one of the cooler things I've ever seen, the entire portion of the bar we were sitting in broke out into thunderous (it was very loud) song for the French national anthem. It was one of those things that you get chills at. The night ended at The Bleeding Horse, my favorite bar of the weekend. It had a really ornate front bar and a nice local feel to it even though there were a lot of young people.
Sunday's weather could not have been any better: clear skys and not really cold. I decided to go down to Marion Square for some of the St. Patrick's Day festivities. Half of it was a St. Gabriel's school picnic and the other half was a cultural performances and kids activities. I watched about six different shows, walked around for while, grabbed all the free food I could and then went home. One of the more interesting shows was what looked like an Islamic religious dance. The main dancer in the middle spun around in circles for what had to be at least 10 minutes. You've got to be good to do that and not get sick, it was impressive. They had these two crazy mascots for the festival and as you can see I had to get my picture with them.
That night we went back to Messrs and enjoyed a few more pints of Guinness. Man, is that stuff good! I can't drink a lot of it because it's so heavy, but just watching the beer mix after it's been poured is worth the money. Since I woke up early Monday morning and headed to the airport there isn't much to report there so in the spirit of Guinness then I'll leave you with a nice final picture. I never knew that the correct way to pour it is to go 3/4's, let it settle then pour the rest.
As I wrote this blog I listened to "Galway Girl" by Mundy on repeat. It's my new favorite Irish song that I picked up while I was there. Check it out yourself!
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Well...It Kind of Was Bad
So I was hoping for the best with my laptop and things didn't really work out. As it turns out they had to replace the Hard Drive, which means I essentially lost everything that I had on my computer. Not too worry however about my pictures, because only the day before I backed them up on a external hard drive sent over from home. So hopefully when I get my computer back up and running they will transfer back over nicely.
Ok, well you may be thinking he has his computer back now, why isn't he blogging? I do have my computer back, but it still doesn't work. Since the hard drive had to be replaced everything is gone on the computer and that includes the OS and all the necessary software to run the computer. And as you may have guessed the cds necessary to reinstall all those things are sitting comfortably at my place in Columbia, a.k.a school. Yet another dilemma. Right now, I am in the process of getting my roommates to round up those cds and send them over to me. What's actually crazy is the fact that it's probably much cheaper to have them send over the cds from the U.S., then it is for me to call Apple on my cellphone here in Denmark. The hold time on the phone and the length it would take to get everything straight would certainly run out my minutes.
So again, I'm sorry for not keeping up with the blog during this time. It's really bothering me as well because I have started to really enjoy doing this. The only consistent computer access available is at school and I hate just spending my hours after class ends hunkered down here for a few more hours. A few of the guys I live with have been really helpful letting me use their computers to check my email late at night and things, but it bothers me to continue asking them again and again. Therefore, the whole blog thing has kind of gone by the wayside for the last week 1/2.
It's absolutely amazing how much more I have to plan my day because I don't have my computer. Add to the fact that I was able to start signing up for fall classes on Monday (a little glitch is the fact that the website to sign up on can't recognize most of the computers that anyone has here, apparently it's an internal language thing on the computer) and it's been kind of important for me to be around a computer lately.
I'll quit with my sob story now and say that the team at the Eric Abroad blog is working vigorously in preparation for an extravagant return to the blog once their regular computer access returns.
Awesome News: I'm going to Dublin, Ireland March 12-17 (see above picture). I would most certainly hope that by the time I return from Dublin things will be back to normal and you can all enjoy what is sure to be a great St. Patrick's Day trip.
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